Special Edition Spring 2024: Exit interview: President Roloff steps down after 8 years

By Mia Timlin

On Aug. 15, 2023, President ReBecca Koenig Roloff announced she would retire at the end of her eight-year agreement with the Board of Trustees. Roloff graduated from St. Kate’s as an undergraduate student in 1976 and returned 40 years later to serve as the university’s 11th president. Roloff’s last day in the position will be Aug. 15, after which she will be succeeded by Dr. Marcheta P. Evans.

When I walked into her office for this exit interview, one of the first things Roloff told me to do was look around. There’s something to look at everywhere — not a wall is left blank. She told me that she loves her “trinkets.” The framed magazine covers, the family pictures, the bobble-head figures. Everything in the office is some sort of mark of where Roloff has been — and there is no shortage of places.

After securing her undergrad degree from St. Kate’s, Roloff went on to earn her MBA from Harvard Business School, leading to a 29-year career in corporate life. With leadership positions at Ameriprise and Pillsbury under her belt, she transitioned into the nonprofit sector, serving as president and CEO of the Minneapolis YWCA for 12 years. When most people would be considering retirement, Roloff took another career jump — this time from nonprofit to higher ed.

“Core leadership structures I think are core leadership,” Roloff said when asked if the role of president of a university was a role she’d ever envisioned for herself. “Did I ever have a goal to or see myself leading this? I started this job when I was 62, and most people are kind of thinking about retiring when they’re 62. But I just couldn’t say no to St. Kate’s. I love the mission and I thought, ‘I can do that job. If they think I can do that job, then I can do that job.’”

And do the job she did. Roloff accepted the position in 2016, and said that it’s in part her self-confidence that has gotten her through eight years at St. Kate’s. The key, she said, is “believing that you belong and have earned the role, and believing that you’re going to make your decisions with the best data that you have — some are going to like it, some aren’t going to like what you do.”

Leaders, and especially those as easily picked up, turned around and examined by others as university presidents, need to be firm in their decisions, especially when those decisions impact large groups of people. Roloff was quick to correct me when I called the type of leadership required for such big roles “direct delegation—” (in this context she wanted to make clear that when it came to decisions made during the COVID-19 pandemic, she was calling the shots — whether the outcome be positive or negative, it was on her shoulders), while acknowledging that strong leadership needs a strong supporting team.

“I think true self-confidence comes when you’re willing to listen, and if you’re wrong you fix it and you take that as a learning going forward, because you can’t be afraid to fail,” Roloff said.

Perfection shouldn’t be the goal, she added.

“If you try to be perfect, you’ll never get anything done because there will always be someone who challenges you. There will always be somebody who criticizes you — but do you know inside of your heart and your head that every decision you made, you made the best decision you could at the time, for St. Kate’s, with the information you had. And then you go.”

That ability to listen was essential during the spring of 2020, when colleges — and everyone — around the world were scrambling to figure out what to do when a deadly virus shut down everyday life.

“I had a great team,” Roloff said. “People give St. Kate’s a lot of credit for how we handled COVID. I take no credit for that. What I do take credit for is how we structured our team for a response, and there was a small core team that was our medical director, our dean of students, our head of HR, our provost — and they were four people I trusted.”

She turned to that core team to help her make key decisions. “I said, ‘You have to tell me what to do, why we’re doing it,’ and then I assembled a larger team. … I think we met every day for at least several weeks. When we made a decision in that room, I knew that we needed no other meetings. That everyone there had the authority to execute.”

Roloff said that part of what allowed this system to work was the trust and structure that already existed within the administration, and she came out knowing the value of a well-assembled team and strong communication between the university and its students, faculty and the broader community.

While Roloff’s stint in the president’s office greatly impacted her professional development, she also talked about some personal shifts that came from her relationship with the school.

“It’s changed me in so many ways,” Roloff said. “I’ve always been an optimistic person, but whenever I was somebody who thinks the world is going down or thinks everything is just so messed up, I go, ‘You cannot feel that way if you’re on the campus of a college — especially at St. Kate’s, because every single person that I see every day is all oriented to the future. If you’re here, you have a belief in the future because you have a goal for the future.’”

Roloff said she sees the students who have graduated during her time at St. Kate’s as her contribution to the future and her work toward world peace. The students are a big part of the legacy she hopes to have left as president.

“I always tried to go to anything I was invited to, going forward. I tried to meet with as many new students as I can coming in,” she said.. “I know there’s so many students that I would’ve just loved to get to know on a personal basis, not by the time that they had an issue. I hope that — I hope — I suppose the history books will judge. You have to let it go to history, right? I hope that by telling our story, I hope that by what I tried to lead in terms of our mission and keeping the campus vibrant, I hope that that all sets us up. Because all I am is one dot along the history line, right?”

Does Roloff have any regrets about her decision to become president of St. Kate’s?

“With all the challenges in the world and all the things that we’ve gone through, I’ve told everyone I would say yes again,” she said. “Even looking back on the eight years, it feels like my entire life led me here. And all the experiences I had, it’s like I started here and I’m ending here. And I never, never would have imagined that sitting in a row in 1976 —48 years ago — how could you ever have imagined this? But all the way along the line you just keep doing your best, working hard, recovering from mistakes, educating yourself, saying yes to the next thing and then don’t ever assume it’s not going to be you doing something unbelievable.”