President Beth Dobkin is retiring at the end of the school year after 40 years in higher education.

California is where she plans to go after Westminster. 

“[I’m] looking forward to riding my horse and working on our organic garden, traveling and spending more time with kids,” Dobkin said. “Those are the immediate plans.”

Dobkin is the 19th president of Westminster University; she started the role in 2018. 

COVID-19 caused uncertainty for most. Dobkin said navigating during that period of time was hard. 

“It seems like a long time ago,” Dobkin said. “It seems less difficult because of the passage of time, but COVID was certainly a very difficult period because any decision made was imperfect, but had to be made.”

While at Westminster, Dobkin led the change in name from Westminster College to Westminster University which led to the expansion of graduate and professional programs. 

Dobkin was able to have Westminster gain national recognition for the career outcomes of its students, support for first-generation students and promoting diversity, equity and inclusion.

The ISPL Global Engagement grew from Dobkin being able to expand opportunities to students who choose to study abroad. Sophomore Study Away was able to launch Fall of 2025 with the help of Dobkin. 

By the end of this school year, Dobkin will have been president for 8 years. 

“I’m proud of Westminster students, so it’s less about what I’ve achieved and what I like to think is that the best ideas aren’t necessarily mine, I just know how to recognize good ones,” Dobkin said. 

Associated Students of Westminster (ASW) President Max Gutierrez said Dobkin has been an advocate for students. 

“[It] came to me as a surprise,” said Gutierrez, a philosophy major and senior. “I’m really sad about it, but I think Beth has always had students’ best interest in mind and has always been transparent.”

Binnie Green Morris is an alum who graduated in 2023 and was part of ASW. Her roles were speaker of the senate and president for about half a year. She now works in Institutional Advancement as the Assistant Director of Advancement Services and Prospect Research at Westminster. 

Morris said she was also surprised about the announcement, but it seems like good timing. 

“A lot of us are surprised,” Morris said. “I think it’s good timing, she’s been in the higher education sphere for so long and has had so many accomplishments, especially during her time at Westminster.”

Audrey Clare, a Career Coach at the Career Center and Student Success data analyst said she is happy for Dobkin but sad for Westminster. 

“President Dobkin has led Westminster through some tumultuous times and I’m grateful for the steady leadership she’s provided,” Clare said.  

This year, Westminster University has been able to celebrate 150 years. Morris said that Dobkin has played a key role in accomplishing its sesquicentennial milestone.

“I think the 150 Sesquicentennial birthday [is] a really high note for her to end her career on,” Morris said. “We’ve been really glad and lucky to have her for the [8] years that it’s been.”

With the search for a new president underway, some changes are inevitable.

Dobkin shares what the next president will need

“I think that anybody who comes into the position needs such a range of skills,” Dobkin said. “We don’t know what the challenges are going to be necessarily, and so it really needs to be someone who can respond nimbly and effectively with the core values at the forefront all the time.”

Dobkin said she keeps three key phrases in mind when she talks about Westminster, a tradition she hopes the next president will continue. 

“The way of talking about Westminster that seems to resonate for folks is when I talk about the freedom to think, the wisdom to know and the agency to act,” Dobkin said. 

Dobkin explains what each means to her. 

The freedom to think is, “being able to think broadly across all topics and all angles, so that we don’t ever shut down a particular point of view or way of thinking,” Dobkin said. 

The wisdom to know is, “the value that we bring to it, and we should never dictate someone’s value system,” Dobkin said. Instead, she suggests that we, “examine it, critique it, decide what parts of it are most important to them and then assess their actions based on their own sense of value.”

Dobkin said that a former Westminster dean described the university to be about agency and impact.

The agency to act is, “what gives us the confidence to move forward, what gives us the skills to be effective, what gives us the sense of responsibility and ability,” Dobkin said.

Dobkin said that the freedom to think, the wisdom to know and the agency to act wraps together what Westminster does. 

“Those three things together, to me, are what Westminster is about, and whoever comes in, I hope continues that tradition which really has roots way back from the founding,” Dobkin said. 

ASW President Gutierrez said he hopes the future president will continue Beth’s commitment to students.

“One thing I would like to see from the future president is to continue Beth’s commitment to hearing student voices and hearing what students want,” Gutierrez said. “Beth is committed to having meetings with all of our student government monthly and is weighing the concerns of students and is also answering the call.”

Although the next president of Westminster is still undecided, Gutierrez has confidence in the search committee.

“I’m pretty confident in the presidential search committee that they will find an adequate replacement that will carry on what Beth does,” Gutierrez said.

Morris, a Westminster alumn who served in ASW said she wants the next president to keep their commitment to students. 

“I think the main quality that’s important in our leadership would be the willingness to connect with students, have fun with students and all of our community on campus,” Morris said.

Trinity Medina, a junior and theatre major said that she hopes the value of inclusion is continued in the next presidency. 

“I hope that there continues to be the idea that inclusion is one of the most important things at Westminster and to not let outside politics interfere with how inclusive and attempted diversity Westminster has,” Medina said.

Morris explains how she would like to have another woman be president if possible. 

“I know a lot of us are thinking we’d like to have another woman in charge because that’s one of the highlights of Westminster, really strong woman leadership and I think that impacts our culture a lot,” Morris said.

Dobkin’s plan after Westminster

Dobkin plans to return to her hometown Arcata in California. Humboldt County California is where Dobkin is from. Arcata is her hometown and is close to the Oregon border on the coast. 

Although Dobkin will be in California, she still plans to be in Salt Lake periodically.

“Both places are beautiful, we’ve really enjoyed exploring Utah but we also made some really deep friendships here that I would want to sustain,” Dobkin said.

Dobkin said she will miss, “the people, the connections, the students, the magic of the start of the school year, the joy of commencement, the growth that you see people have in between those times and each year, that will be hard.”