Get to know UMD's new chancellor

Nies enjoys cooking, camping and listening to jazz, though recent favorites include Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith and Lana Del Rey. Photo by Seth Roeser

Charles Nies, PhD, became the 10th chancellor of the University of Minnesota Duluth over the summer, succeeding Interim Chancellor David McMillan’s term, which lasted from 2022 to June 2024. Nies’ appointment was approved by the University of Minnesota Board of Regents on May 9 and was effective July 1. Born and raised in Minnesota but having most recently lived in California, Nies views his new position at UMD as a sort of homecoming.

“As I looked at the profile of the campus and the things being accomplished here, I saw a lot of great things that I wanted to be a part of and help support,” Nies said.

Nies graduated from Hutchinson High School in 1982. An active student, he played saxophone in the marching band, ran track and participated in student government. After graduating high school and a year-long stint in then partitioned Germany, Nies went on to pursue bachelor degrees in psychology and theology at University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. His theology degree was particularly exciting to his grandmother – who hoped he would become a priest – though Nies said that ministerial work was never in the cards for him.

Nies originally took a theology course to fulfill a general education requirement, but a particularly engaging professor made him realize how well the fields of psychology and theology complimented each other, a lesson Nies would take to heart.

“I think that the double major experience I had at St. Thomas really helped me value the role of interdisciplinary work,” Nies said. “As much as we like to put these disciplines into discrete little boxes, there’s way too much blend. I feel really fortunate that the experience I had at St. Thomas really made that come alive to me, in ways that I think have created a really solid foundation for me on what I think about the role of education.”

After getting his master's degree in psychology at Washington State University and interning at the campus counseling center, he believed he was too opinionated to be a helpful therapist.

“That’s when I discovered I wasn’t wired to be a therapist,” Nies said. “Thankfully, there are people who are I’m not one of them.”

Wanting to take a break from his psychology studies, Nies moved to New York to work as an administrator at a small private school, where he became interested in education. After a few years, he returned to Washington State to get his PhD in psychology and a doctorate in education administration with a focus on leadership theory.

Nies went on to teach organizational theory at Miami University in Ohio, where he served as Assistant Dean for the School of Interdisciplinary Studies and oversaw the liberal education curriculum for students in self-designed majors, as well as teach at University of California, Merced, where he served as the Interim Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs and most recently worked before his move to Duluth.

Nies met with students in The Garage on Wednesday, Aug. 28 to hear their comments, thoughts and concerns about UMD and the new school year. Photo by Seth Roeser

Now back in Minnesota and easing into being UMD’s chancellor, Nies said he wants to promote and support the college’s strengths, the same strengths that attracted him to this campus.

“We are this midsized institution where our undergraduate students are able to work hand in hand with faculty to create new knowledge, and to problem solve, and to be co-creator scholars with us in that process,” Nies said. “How are we ensuring that those resources, those tools and the culture that we create at UMD focus on student success and opportunity?”

Nies also has ideas for combating UMD’s steadily declining enrollment post COVID. Keeping in line with his interdisciplinary background, Nies believes that certain recruitment methods may unnecessarily divide potential undergraduate demographics and a more holistic, less compartmentalized approach would be more effective in drawing in new students to campus.

“I think too often we think of K-12 as a segment, and we think of community college as a segment and we think of four year [university] as a segment,” Nies said. “How do we really think about the full continuum of education that exists?”

“Part of what we’re looking at is populations of high school graduates that historically haven’t gone to college,” Nies said. “We need to think about how to remove some barriers and increase access for them to explore postsecondary.”

As students were enjoying their time off campus, Nies spent July and most of August connecting with Duluth city officials, as well as UMD staff, faculty and donors to learn the campus’ history and legacy. He had lunch with past chancellors Kathryn A. Martin and Lendley C. Black, who shared advice and words of wisdom. According to Nies, Interim Chancellor McMillan’s final days in office overlapped with the start of Nies’ term, and Nies said McMillan helped ease him into his new position.

Nies shared his views on the role campus administrators like him play in relation to students at UMD.

“Part of the piece, for me, is to really encourage our undergraduate students to lean into all of the opportunities that exist here, to ferret out those resources that we have to support your success,” Nies said. “We are going to take on that challenge to make sure that we remove barriers so that you have access to those opportunities.”

This story was originally published in The Bark’s monthly print, available on UMD campus.