The Murray State University Board of Regents unanimously voted in favor of officially naming Dr. Timothy Todd Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs, which goes into effect March 1. He has served as interim provost for the past eight months.
Many of the regents took turns expressing their pleasure with Todd’s appointment for the position and commending him for more than two decades of dedication to the university.
MSU President Dr. Bob Jackson added, “Dr. Tim Todd is the right person at the right time for this job.”
Todd was visibly overjoyed and said, “I am extremely honored and extremely humbled. I love this university. …I’m very moved and I thank you all very much.”
“I was honored Dr. Jackson asked me to come on as interim and under his leadership, many, many good things are happening. We’re ticking up in all the parameters of enrollment and many other universities can’t say that so lots of good things are going on,” he added.
Todd said it wasn’t a position he sought out because he has been “very satisfied” in his 12 years of service as the dean of MSU’s Arthur J. Bauernfeind College of Business, but he’s honored to have been selected for this opportunity. He’s no stranger to the position having served another interim provost stint in 2015-2016 and from 1998-2006 served as assistant provost and associate provost.
He said it has been his honor to serve the university the past 25 years and he hopes to serve another 25; he also joked he was “glad it wasn’t his funeral so he could hear” all the kind things said in his honor.
Todd said now that a permanent provost has been officially selected, the administration will begin working to fill the position for dean of the college of business, currently filled by Interim Dean Dr. David Eaton.
In other business:
The Board of Regents (BOR) approved changing the name of the Carr Health Building to ‘John W. Carr Hall’ in honor of the first president of the university.
The BOR approved renewing the campus health clinic facility lease. Jackson noted the university made a change in health services in Spring 2019 when itcontracted with Primary Care Medical Center who occupies and leases a space on the first floor of Wells Hall. He said everyone has been pleased with the arrangement and recommended the board renew the lease.
The BOR will hold a special-called meeting on April 24 to vote on a final decision regarding how the university will manage its status with Kentucky Employee Retirement System (KERS). Jackson told the regents they will only be given from April 1 until April 30 to make the decision and even though they will have an estimate for their liability amount, the regents won’t receive a finalized liability amount until they decide if they’re going to remain in the system or not. He said current legislation under consideration of Kentucky lawmakers could have an impact on the decision the regents are prohibited by statute from making until April. He referenced HB 171, which passed the House unanimously and is now in the Senate. He said if it passes, it should level the university’s participation to 49% (or approximately $2.2 million) for the next 27 years; if not, the university’s liability could rise to 93% (or approximately $11.6 million).
MSU will stop conducting its own custodial/grounds maintenance services effective April 13 and SSC Services Solutions will officially take over those duties April 15. The measure is expected to save the university nearly $860,000 annually and more than $4 million for the duration of the five-year contract. SSC has engaged the hiring process and started planning services, as well as taking inventory of what equipment is already available and what might need to be purchased. In addition, as part of the contract, SSC made a capital investment of $1 million to the university, which the BOR approved to use in making lighting upgrades, student needs-based aid and Chestnut Pedestrian Bridge upgrades.
The BOR approved moving the Nonprofit Leadership Program to align with the College of Business. Dr. Bob Long said although they were referring to the measure as a ‘realignment,’ it was more appropriately called a ‘formal alignment.’
The BOR approved changing the name of the Department of Organizational Communication to ‘Department of Organizational Communication Leadership’ in the Arthur J. Bauernfeind College of Business effective July 1, 2020. Dr. Michael Bokeno said he believed the minor change would result in program participation growth because the name would now be more reflective of what would be offered to the students in the program.
The BOR approved creation of a Bachelor of General Studies, which is not a degree which will be advertised to incoming students but rather a fall-back track for juniors or seniors who change majors. Dr. Shauna Mullins said often, juniors and seniors who change tracks that late in their college career end up racking up even more debt trying to complete a new program. This degree would be offered to those students by their advisors as an alternative way to complete a degree and still graduate on time.
The BOR approved seeking requests for qualifications (RFQs) for the project which will provide new and updated housing and parking for MSU’s students. The regents also approved updating the housing master plan, which will become part of the 2020 Master Plan for the university. The board reviewed a number of potential sites for housing and options for styles of housing, but learned they would need to select a firm before final decisions were made. The RFQs are scheduled to go out March 4 with a March 20 deadline for responses from firms and March 31 deadline for the BOR to select its top pick of firms from those responses. Then on April 1, the BOR is scheduled to issue requests for proposals (RFPs) from those top-choice firms, who will have an April 30 deadline to file the RFPs. The BOR will spend the month of May reviewing interviews and RFPs and then in June, select the firm, approve and execute a contract by June 30.
