Clif Smart's successor as Missouri State president must commit to these 3 goals
Under President Clif Smart’s valiant leadership, Missouri State University has grown in many ways. Fundraising smashed records, and renovations and new buildings beautified campus. Our profile rose alongside school pride. But there are three huge tasks ahead for the next university president. If accomplished, they will bring in more students, income, donors — what any institution needs to improve its degree programs, keep tuition down, pay professors better, and more. Our next leader must have an absolute commitment to the following aims.
1) Joining an FBS conference. Smart, his athletics director, our new football coach, and the fan base have all started speaking the same language. It’s time to move onward and upward, out of the Missouri Valley Conference and FCS football. We’re a major institution. If there’s a higher tier, we’re gunning for it. Bobby Petrino’s football program revealed the possible, giving Arkansas and Oklahoma State real scares. Joining an FBS conference brings wider national exposure, richer TV contracts, a chance at bowl games, and a more excited, proud fan base. The next president must craft a plan, including facilities improvements, to attract an invite.
2) Men’s basketball’s consistent appearance in the NCAA Tournament, and football’s consistent appearance in the FCS playoffs until FBS is reached. Imagine for a moment that Missouri State was the team in Missouri to reliably enter the NCAA Tournament. It would be transformative. Multitudes of young people would want to be Bears. The national exposure would be invaluable. Remember the 1980s and ’90s, when we’d make it into March Madness, even the Sweet 16? It’s time to return to glory. Likewise, football must continue the success Petrino created to remain attractive to FBS conferences and engage fans, battling in the FCS playoffs. Our new president must better fund these two critical sports, and never be afraid to cut ties with a failing coach and find one with playoff or championship experience.
3) Helping free MSU to offer PhDs. It’s illegal for MSU and eight other public universities in the state to offer PhDs and first-professional degrees in law, medicine, engineering, and so on. The University of Missouri system holds a monopoly on these degrees. There’s a reason MSU offers fewer than a dozen doctorates — it isn’t allowed to do much more. In 2023, bills were filed in the Missouri Legislature to end the monopoly (SB 473, HB 1189), but they died in committee. New bills are coming in 2024. The next president must fight for fairness and work with the Legislature to lift the ban. MSU will then be able to offer many more doctoral programs, attracting more graduate students.
Achieving these goals will send a university that has long been on an upward trajectory into the stratosphere. I urge the search committee to find a candidate who will commit with the utmost passion, and I encourage Bears everywhere to call for this as well at MSU’s October 2 input forum and through the community survey at missouristate.edu/president/search.
Garrett S. Griffin is a writer and graduate student at Missouri State University. He earned a bachelor’s degree from MSU in 2011.
This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Three things the next Missouri State University president must do
