Murray State University held the last of its four town hall meetings Monday for campus and community members to meet Christian E. Hardigree, one of the finalists to be the college’s next president.
Hardigree currently serves as the regional chancellor of the University of South Florida’s St. Petersburg campus and has over two decades of experience in higher education.
At the town hall, Hardigree spoke about her experience seeing her dad become the first person in her family to graduate college. She emphasized that she believes education can be vital for social mobility.
“Education is so formative. It lifts communities up. It allows us to move forward in ways we didn't even know [were] possible,” Hardigree said.
Hardigree earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in 1993. She then earned her juris doctor from Mercer University School of Law, specializing in labor management relations and employment law, in 1996.
Hardigree moved to Kennesaw State University in 2012 after nearly 15 years with UNLV in various administrative and faculty roles. She went on to be the founding director of the Michael A. Leven School of Culinary Sustainability & Hospitality (formerly the Institute for Culinary Sustainability & Hospitality) in 2015. She then became the dean of the School of Hospitality at Metropolitan State University of Denver for three years before moving to her current position at USF, where she also is a professor at their School of Hospitality & Tourism Management.
At the town hall, Hardigree said she believes her experience at these varied higher education institutions would be beneficial if she were hired to lead Murray State.
“Having had experience at a number of different institutions that were focused on access… serving our community, community engagement, [and] economic prosperity provided a pretty good toolbox,” Hardigree said.
According to her curriculum vitae, Hardigree led safety and emergency management efforts at USF, which has been responsible for six hurricane evacuations as well as supporting students displaced due to weather events.
Hardigree spoke about Murray State University’s mission aligning with her beliefs in the opportunities for personal and economic growth afforded by a college education.
“Watching the momentum that is growing, watching the mission that you have. I love that your mission is ‘our highest priority is student learning and excellent teaching,’” Hardigree said. “That’s absolute clarity on what your mission is. It’s how we’re going to move forward in ways that impact social mobility for the students that graduate from our programs.”
This was the final town hall highlighting Murray State University presidential finalists. The school also held town halls for community members, students and employees to meet the other finalists, Chad Tindol, Ron K. Patterson and Diana Rogers-Adkinson.
MSU’s presidential search committee is expected to have a hire in place before the start of the next academic year.
