Presidential Updates

Clif’s Notes for Sept. 14, 2021

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The Public Affairs Conference is the week after next (Sept. 27-30).

The conference theme is Bridging the Divide. Participants will explore our country’s most pressing issues, consider views that diverge from their own personal opinions and discuss opportunities to find common ground.

Enjoy an evening with John Quiñones

The featured speaker is John Quiñones. Quiñones is an ABC News correspondent, author, and creator and host of What Would You Do?

His recent work focuses on how ordinary people behave when facing various choices and ethical dilemmas.

Quiñones’ presentation is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Sept. 28 in Juanita K. Hammons Hall for the Performing Arts. The presentation is free, and you do not need tickets to attend.

The MSU Foundation will host a VIP reception with Quiñones before his speech.

Tickets for the VIP reception are $100 and include:

  • Photo opportunity with Quiñones and autograph.
  • Cocktails, beverages and hors d’oeuvres.
  • Special reserved seating at the keynote speech.

Buy tickets

Access the schedule

The full schedule is available on the Public Affairs Conference webpage.

Highlights include:

Plan to attend

All sessions of the conference are free and open to the public. No registration or tickets are required to attend.

Some of the sessions will be live and others will be virtual. Check the conference webpage for details.

As in prior years, employees may use up to two hours of their work time, in coordination with their supervisors, to attend the conference. I encourage you to attend, and I encourage supervisors to facilitate attendance by individuals in your offices or divisions.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State!

Clif’s Notes for Sept. 7, 2021

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Cultural competence is one of the pillars of our public affairs mission, and inclusiveness is a critical value that guides our campus.

Our long-range plan emphasizes the university’s commitment to inclusive excellence.

All of us must do our part to make everyone feel welcome and a sense of belonging at Missouri State University regardless of their race, nationality, religion, politics, sexual orientation, gender identity, and broadly diverse backgrounds, experiences and characteristics.

Everyone has a place at this university, and every single student and member of our faculty and staff are important to the fabric of our community.

Working toward a more inclusive campus

We have focused on valuing the inclusion of diversity for over a decade. That focus continues as we start this school year.

The new Multicultural Resource Center in Plaster Student Union is open. It is a welcoming space for students to interact, study and engage in campus life at Missouri State.

If you haven’t already done so, please stop by to check out this exciting new addition to our campus footprint.

During the first week of classes, we hosted a large group of students, faculty, staff, administrators and members of the Springfield community for a Multicultural Networking Reception in the Davis-Harrington Welcome Center.

Our focus was to support students engaged with our multicultural services on campus and provide them with the opportunity to broadly network with people on and off campus who are committed to helping them succeed in academics and their careers.

Last week, our student athletes and athletic staff held a Unity Walk. This walk is a tradition our student athletes started last year to demonstrate their commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion at Missouri State University and to stand in solidarity with those directly impacted by injustice and racism.

We also have over 100 first-year students and over 100 returning students engaged with the Bears LEAD (Leadership, Empowerment, Achievement and Diversity) program this fall.

Bears LEAD provides students with opportunities to:

  • Meet new friends.
  • Create connections with faculty and staff.
  • Connect with mentors.
  • Explore Springfield.
  • Participate in community service projects.
  • Gain academic support.
  • Participate in personal/professional development workshops.
  • Attend cultural events and social activities.
  • And much more.

Last year we piloted a new diverse faculty mentoring program called Bear Bridge. The pilot was very successful, and we will grow the program this year.

Bear Bridge is designed to foster collaboration between junior and senior faculty during the tenure track process. I adamantly support this program and its work. If you are a tenure-track diverse faculty member, I encourage you to join this program and connect with the opportunities and resources it provides.

You can register to join the program as a mentor or mentee online.

Get involved

More events and initiatives designed to facilitate an inclusive climate on our campus will occur throughout the year. These activities are designed to facilitate an inclusive climate and institutional culture that values the rich diversity that all campus and community stakeholders bring to Missouri State University.

Examples of these events, initiatives and activities include:

Please check Inside Missouri State and the university’s other communication channels for information as new opportunities to participate in campus and community events and activities arise.

Make a difference

Advancing new initiatives and attending campus events isn’t enough.

It is important that we all work every day to enhance the climate of our campus and make our community inclusive and welcoming to all comers. This requires intentional action to encourage people in our daily interactions, seek out and offer support to members of our campus community who have been excluded, and intervene when we see inequity, injustice and unfair treatment.

I hope you will join me on the journey to do this important work and continue to make our campus a welcoming environment for all.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State!

Clif’s Notes for Aug. 31, 2021

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Over the last two weeks I attended many college meetings and received a number of questions from faculty and staff about the university’s efforts to mitigate spread of COVID-19.

You can find information about these efforts on the university’s COVID-19 Information Center. I would also encourage you to monitor the status of COVID-19 on campus through the university’s COVID-19 Dashboard.

We update the dashboard each day, and it is a good resource to learn about COVID-19 cases on campus, progress on vaccination and virus testing.

Schedule an appointment at Magers

Last week the FDA approved the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. If you have been waiting for this approval to get your vaccine, I would encourage you to schedule your vaccination appointment at Magers Health and Wellness Center as soon as possible.

Get an appointment

Vaccination Incentive Program underway

We have already drawn names for the first $1,000 cash prize winners through the Employee Vaccination Incentive Program. You can see the names of those winners online.

We will draw more names this Friday and again on Friday, Sept. 10.

If you weren’t vaccinated at Magers and you haven’t already submitted your vaccination card to enter the drawing, please submit your card as soon as possible. All full-time and part-time employees who have been fully vaccinated are eligible to win.

You can submit your vaccination card by:

Additional information can be found on the Employee Vaccination Incentive Program webpage.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State!

Clif’s Notes for Aug. 24, 2021

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Welcome to Missouri State University.

If you are new to campus, I look forward to connecting with you. Feel free to tweet at me (my Twitter handle is @clifsmart) or stop me on the sidewalk and introduce yourself.

I hope you were able to enjoy some of our Welcome Weekend activities as students moved into residence halls and began forming lifelong relationships with one another. I was particularly impressed by this year’s New Student Convocation presentation by Amaka Agugua-Hamilton (Coach Mox), our Lady Bears basketball coach.

The next several weeks will provide many opportunities to be engaged on campus:

  • We will host a Multicultural Networking Reception at 5:30 p.m. Aug. 26 in the Davis-Harrington Welcome Center.
  • We will greet our new students with House Calls at 5:15 p.m. Sept. 1. You may sign up on the residence life, housing and dining services webpage.
  • We will cheer on our Bears at the first home football game on Sept. 11. Tailgating in Bearfest Village will start around 5 p.m. The game is scheduled for kickoff at 7 p.m.

Other campus events can be found on the calendar of events.

COVID-19 update

I hope you were able to join us for our Virtual Town Hall last Wednesday. If you were not able to participate, you can find the slides and a recording of the meeting online.

At the town hall David Hall and I updated faculty and staff on the status of COVID-19 on campus and in our community. COVID-19 case numbers continue to decline and vaccination rates continue to increase in Greene County.

We have updated the university’s COVID-19 Information Center and dashboard so you can keep up to date with the status of COVID-19 on our campus.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State!

Clif’s Notes for Aug. 17, 2021

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The Board of Governors met earlier this month for their annual retreat.

The board reviewed the final version of the Springfield campus 2021-26 Long-Range Plan and established key performance indicators (KPIs) for the plan.

Goals had already been established for several of our KPIs. The SEM plan provided a goal of 5,800 degrees and certificates awarded. We achieved that goal last year, but continuing to reach that level will be challenging given demographic shifts.

The SEM plan also provided goals for enrollment, retention and student financial obligation.

Along with the SEM goals, the board set several other goals for the university to pursue under the new long-range plan. In addition to the goal already set for degrees and certificates awarded, the board set a goal of sustaining 5,000 degrees awarded each year.

The board set an enrollment target of 3,400 underrepresented students and set a goal of 60% overall graduation rate and a goal of 50% graduation rate for underrepresented groups.

The board indicated we should continue to work toward diversifying our faculty and staff and set a target of 17% of our faculty and staff being international or members of a historically underrepresented group. The board also set a goal of 90% of our recent graduates being employed, enlisted in the military or enrolled in further education after graduation.

The board also recognized additional KPIs that will not have goals or targets associated with them. These include:

  • Number of terminal degree programs and degrees awarded.
  • Number of global partnerships and countries with global partnerships.
  • Tuition and fees.
  • External funds received through gifts and grants.

Review the action items

To achieve these goals, we will all have to work together to put our long-range plan into action. As I said throughout the last year, we will do this with annual action plans at the university and division level.

Following their KPI discussion, the board reviewed the university’s 2021-22 Action Plan. The action plan includes some of the work we will do this year to put the university on a path toward establishing the goals set by the board.

This year’s action items include:

  • A long list of initiatives designed to enhance our outreach, recruitment, retention and completion efforts.
  • Reviewing the university’s scholarship program.
  • Continuing to grow the university’s professional doctoral and MFA programs.
  • Evaluating a subscription model to provide continuing education opportunities to alumni and others.
  • Continuing to implement the international student recruitment plan and promoting interaction between international and domestic students.
  • Expanding the university’s work to improve access, retention and graduation of underrepresented students.
  • Expanding mentorship programs and improving our recruitment and retention of underrepresented faculty and staff.
  • Centralizing student internship development, marketing and promotion.
  • Continuing to expand the university’s economic development activities in IDEA Commons.
  • Prioritizing employee compensation in the university’s budgeting process.

Other board decisions

At the retreat and at their July Executive Committee meeting, the board also took action on several important matters. The board:

  • Approved the Strategic Enrollment Management Plan for the West Plains campus and discussed the West Plains campus long-range plan and master plan development processes, which will occur this year.
  • Awarded an $8.1 million contract to Carson-Mitchell, Inc. to renovate Ann Kampeter Health Sciences Hall and a $190,000 contract to Friga Construction Company, Inc. to renovate three rooms in Glass Hall.
  • Approved the university’s contract with the City of Springfield for the Springfield Police Department to continue to provide law enforcement services on the Springfield campus.
  • Received updates on the office of research administration year-end-report, the foundation’s year-end-report, and an update on the name, image and likeness rights of student athletes.

Your role in MSU’s success

I hope you will take a moment to review the KPIs and action plan and consider what you can do to contribute to the university’s success in the coming year. We accomplished a lot last year, but we’re not done yet.

Together we can continue to achieve great things for our university.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State!