On March 4, the Board of Governors announced its selection for the 12th president of Missouri State University. Dr. Richard “Biff” Williams will begin on July 1. You can find more information about Dr. Williams on his website.

It’s an exciting time at Missouri State!

• We continue to move forward with the Alliance for Healthcare Education.
• The academic realignment, led by Dr. John Jasinski and the Deans’ Team, is approaching the end of Phase 2.
• BrightSpace, the new learning management system will officially replace Blackboard at the end of May following a soft launch over this academic year.
• The enrollment management team is working hard to maintain enrollment numbers despite the continued challenge of the new FAFSA process.

It feels like a great time to retire and hand the baton to a new leader.

The search committee and the board worked very hard to identify the best person for the president’s job. I look forward to working with Dr. Williams over the next few months to ensure we have a smooth transition.

I hope everyone was able to take a breath and regroup last week while our students were away for Spring Break. We have the second half of the semester ahead of us and then commencement. It’s going to go by in a flash.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State.

Clif