Senior Grace Walker recently set down with President Clif Smart for a conversation with about his time as President of Missouri State and his goals for the future.
Four things you probably didn’t know about President Clif Smart:
Missouri State University’s President, Clif Smart, is beloved by campus. He is known for his selfies, funny videos with Boomer, and tweets defending his choice to not cancel classes on snowy winter days. He is so popular that organizations have even raised money by selling stickers of his face (one of which is currently on my laptop).
President Smart has done a lot to earn the respect and admiration of students and staff, but I have to admit – I didn’t know much about him. I have the selfies to prove that I’ve briefly interacted with our President, but that was the extent of our relationship. I had skimmed articles about his past careers, his wife, and how he stumbled into his current position, but I had always wanted to get his perspective about goals for the university, his legacy, and the vision for our school’s future.
As a celebration of his seven years at the university, I got to sit down with the President I’ve heard about since freshman year and ask him the questions I’ve always wanted to ask. I learned some cool things along the way.
1. He doesn’t have an academic background. For fifteen years, he worked as a private practice lawyer. He was an owner of the Strong Law Firm with two other partners. One of his clients was Cox Health. After President Smart left the firm, he became General Counsel for Missouri State University. Despite his lack of experience in academia, his past careers have provided skills that have proved transferable to his current position. I asked him what he thought he had gained throughout his life that helped his transition from private practice to becoming the President of one of the largest public universities in Missouri. President Smart said, “I’ve acquired leadership skills, the ability to speak well, interacting with others and having a tone of trying to include everyone, being completely open about what we’re doing and seeking input about how to do things best.”
Throughout our interview, he repeatedly brought up how much inclusion mattered to him, and that diversity of thought is what truly has led his term to be so successful thus far. Because he did not have an academic background like most university administrators do, President Smart felt it was vital to have a Provost with a very strong academic background. Dr. Frank Einhellig fit the bill perfectly- as the then Dean of the Graduate College, he provided the academic expertise that Clif lacked. Together, they created a dynamic duo that has lead our university to success.
2. He initially turned down the offer of interim President.
When President Smart took his position as the university’s general counsel, he assumed it would be the last job he would have before he retired. The university had just appointed a new president, but it turned out not to be a good fit. Within the year both the new President and Provost stepped down, leaving the Board of Governors searching for two competent leaders to fill the positions. He helped negotiate the terms of their separation agreements. Once he gave the agreements to the Board of Governors, they asked him if he was interested in becoming interim president while they searched for a more permanent replacement. President Smart didn’t see that as an option he would even consider. “I laughed and said, ‘No, thanks’.” That was a Friday in June 2011. The Board didn’t give up so easily, though. After looking at other options they pursued him again that Saturday and Sunday. After deliberation, President Smart accepted the position with Frank Einhellig as his Provost on June 27th.
Since the timeline of his initial rejection of the offer was so close, I asked him what changed his mind. “I think a part of it was other people within the leadership thinking I had the ability to do this,” he said. “Steve Owens was general counsel at the University of Missouri and was also the sitting interim president at the time, and I had some interactions with him. Gail thought it was something we could do, and Frank agreeing to join me was really the final piece of the puzzle.”
3. His favorite pillar is Ethical Leadership.
As every member of the Missouri State community knows, the public affairs mission is not just a saying, but a way of life. All three pillars are necessary to be a well-rounded citizen of any community and Missouri State takes every opportunity to instill these values in us, the students. With that in mind, I wanted to ask President Smart his personal favorite out of the three. Like me, he chose ethical leadership. “Ethical leadership comes with walking the walk, not just talking the talk,” he explained. “It’s how you manage people, handle tough times, make budget cuts and promotion decisions, and how you seek input on issues. And for me as the CEO I think the ethical leadership part stands out. You have to operate at a higher level.” He gave the example of changing the university employee healthcare plan. He led meetings with different constituents, kept effective communication with the leadership team, held town hall meetings, created a survey to evaluate and then personally read all 700 responses to ensure he could meet requests and maintain satisfaction.
This is just one small example to show how President Smart’s diligence and dedication to upholding the public affairs mission has impacted the students, faculty and staff, and our Springfield community.
4. He has made waves during his time as President.
When asked to describe his time here in one word, he responded with “Progress.” Since President Smart started his position, Missouri State enrollment has consistently increased. We receive more private donations to help improve the university, and we are breaking barriers to provide more opportunities for our students. “We needed to grow into our name, we needed to raise our profile, improve the way our campus looked, the way we brand our campus, develop pride in it and develop more graduate programs,” he explained. “I think there were a whole series of things that we needed to do to grow into the state wide university our name says that we are. We’ve made a lot of progress, and we want to continue to make a lot of progress on those things.”
And President Smart is exactly right. Missouri State is consistently praised for how beautiful our campus is – in 2017 we even received an award for how many trees we have on campus. Under his leadership, degree legislation was changed to allow Missouri State to eventually develop a medical school and a law school. We offer new graduate programs for the College of Education and are in the process of adding several doctoral programs. Missouri State has become a household name, our athletics are soaring, and students seem to be really happy here.
Because of President Smart, Missouri State has become the number one choice for high school students in the state, and we attract more students from across the nation than ever before. President Smart says that bringing in diversity and different perspectives has tremendously contributed to the growing success of the school. “I’ve really come to understand the importance of diversity. In our leadership team we have much more women, minorities, people of color, LGBTQ,” President Smart explains proudly. “All of a sudden the conversation in the room changed, and I tell people – when we went from all male, white, and straight to our current leadership team, the kinds of conversation we have are better because we bring different perspectives to the table.”
Not only has President Smart accomplished incredible things for the university, but the campus community absolutely loves him. He is known for interacting with students on Twitter, and he collaborates with our marketing team to make videos promote university events and athletics. Not many university presidents would make a video dancing to a Drake song or crowd surf at a football game, but President Smart will.
All he has done for our student body is held in high regard. Last fall, a couple of my friends and I attended a volleyball game one evening on a school night. A couple rows in front of us was President Smart. Even after a long, cold day, he supports our students any way he can. His dedication to our university has earned him an incredible reputation that will be remembered for generations.
(submitted by Missouri State senior Grace Walker – Orientation Assistant, New Student and Family Programs, University Ambassadors, Alpha Chi Omega)