De Pere’s St. Norbert College Graduate Comes Back To Lead School

St. Norbert College in De Pere has named Brian Bruess as its eighth president, effective July 1, 2017.

Bruess graduated from St. Norbert in 1990, then went on to work in administrative positions at St. Catherine University in St. Paul, Minnesota. Most recently he served as the university’s chief operating officer.

Besides fostering education and community service, Bruess said his main goal as president is to build on the college’s existing $100 million endowment fund. He said such funds are very important in private education.

“We know that in American higher education that growing an endowment is a really important sign of the health and vitality of a college,” he said.

In the last decade, St. Norbert has spent $140 million on new construction. Bruess said the endowment also helps with building maintenance and student financial aid, plus more saying, “we also like to think about using endowments to support endowed professorships and other really important programmatic pieces of the college.”

Bruess will be only the second alumnus to lead the school in its history. He said he was attracted to the job because of St. Norbert’s commitment to the liberal arts, Catholicism and the Norbertine traditions of contemplation and community action.

“When you have a community like St. Norbert that cares and cultivates its mission for education for students so thoughtfully, it really energizes you and gets you excited to do that work every day,” he said.

Bruess succeeds outgoing St. Norbert President Thomas Kunkel.