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. 22, 2020

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As I mentioned last week, two of the things we will focus on this year are completing our strategic enrollment management plan and developing the university’s next long-range plan and visioning guide.

SEM planning

We began developing our strategic enrollment management (SEM) plan last year. Unfortunately, the pandemic intervened and we had to stop working on the plan.

We have resumed our work on the SEM plan, and a final draft will be presented to the Board of Governors in December.

When we paused our process last year, we had finalized guiding principles and enrollment goals. We were in the process of developing specific strategies and tactics.

As we resume our planning process, we will narrow and reassess our goals to focus more directly on measurable success in enrollment, both recruitment and retention. We will develop strategies and tactics prepared to address the challenges identified before the pandemic but also to address the new challenges that have recently emerged.

As we narrow the focus of our SEM goals, we will also reduce the number of SEM councils involved in finalizing the plan. If you are involved with the SEM steering committee or one of the remaining SEM councils, please re-engage as we complete the plan.

All members of the university community will work together to implement the SEM plan. I look forward to presenting the final plan to you later this year.

Long-range planning

I hope you are as excited as I am to map our future through the 2021-26 long-range plan. We will develop that plan throughout this year and present it to the board for approval this summer.

Dr. Shawn Wahl and Suzanne Shaw will lead a steering committee for the long-range plan. The steering committee roster will be finalized in the coming weeks and a webpage with updates about the planning process will be published.

We want everyone in the university community to provide input and be part of the planning process. You will have multiple opportunities throughout this year to participate in focus groups, town halls and virtual exploration sessions.

Your first opportunity to engage is an interactive presentation titled Future Visioning Webinar. This presentation is scheduled from 1 – 2 p.m. Sept. 28. Additional details can be found online.

Your vision for MSU

We will also develop our 2021-2026 visioning guide. The visioning guide assists the university in planning our facilities for future growth and development. You can see the current visioning guide online.

Throughout this year, we will analyze our space needs, poll the campus community, and interview critical space stakeholders as we develop our next visioning guide. I hope you will engage in this important process, too.

Public Affairs Conference

The public affairs conference is next week.

The conference theme is The Power of Voice. We are surrounded by voices all offering different information, ideas, opinions and points of view.

This year’s conference will explore how these voices impact us, how we can use our voices, and how we can find ways to respectfully agree and disagree.

This year’s conference will feature four plenary speakers:

This year’s conference is virtual, and individual Zoom links for each session are available on the conference website. Session start times have been scheduled to align with start times for most classes on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1.

All sessions of the conference are free and open to the public. No registration is required to participate.

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. 24, 2019

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The public affairs conference is next week.

The conference theme is “The 21st Century Digital World.” Participants will explore how digital technology has influenced all aspects of our lives.

The featured speaker is Bobby Bones. Bones is an award-winning radio broadcaster and vice-president and creative director of iHeartCountry. His show broadcasts to almost 140 stations and is the No. 1 country morning show with millions of weekly listeners. Bones’ keynote presentation is scheduled for Oct. 1 at 7:30 p.m. in Juanita K. Hammons Hall.

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

All sessions of the conference, including the keynote presentation by Bobby Bones, are free and open to the public. No registration or tickets are required to attend.

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 April 10, 2018

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As I mentioned last week, this week is the annual Public Affairs Conference. I hope you will take some time to look at the schedule and attend some of the sessions.

Dr. Robert Ballard, this year’s featured speaker, will give his presentation tonight at 7:30 p.m. in Juanita K. Hammons Hall. Ballard is the explorer who discovered the wreckage of the Titanic in 1985. His presentation will give his personal account of that experience. No registration or tickets are required to attend.

Missouri Public Affairs Hall of Fame

On Friday evening we will induct this year’s class into the Missouri Public Affairs Hall of Fame. This year’s inductees are Jean Carnahan, Peter Herschend, Lane McConnell, General John J. Pershing and Phyllis Washington.

Jean Carnahan was Missouri’s first lady and our first female U.S. Senator. She has been a life-long advocate for children and families.

Peter Herschend is co-founder and co-owner of Herschend Family Entertainment Corporation (formerly Silver Dollar City, Inc). An education champion, Herschend has been instrumental in promoting higher standards for Missouri’s public education system for more than two decades.

Lane McConnell founded the Farmers Market of the Ozarks. The market is home to more than 110 farmers and was named the number six farmers market in the country in 2015.

Gen. John J. Pershing, a native of Laclede, Missouri, led a distinguished military career culminating with his rank as General of the Armies. He is most recognized for his leadership during World War I.

Phyllis Washington is a former vice president of the Missouri State University Board of Governors. She began her career as an educator in 1968 in Kansas City. After just a few years as a teacher, she was named principal of E.F. Swinney Applied Learning Magnet, one of the first magnet schools in the Kansas City school district’s court-ordered desegregation plan.

The Public Affairs Hall of Fame induction ceremony is one of my favorite events of the year. It’s not too late to purchase tickets. I hope to see you there.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State!

 

Clif’s Notes for April 3, 2018

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Today is election day. I encourage all faculty, staff and students to vote.

In Greene County, we have only two propositions on the ballot that involve the same issue.

Proposition A is a 20-year renewal of a $0.05 tax first passed in 1998. It is used to fund technical and healthcare program operations at Ozarks Technical Community College (OTC). Proposition B is an additional $0.05 property tax with a 20-year sunset that would be used to fund new technical and healthcare programs, including the construction of a Center for Advanced Manufacturing and Technology at OTC.

These propositions are very important to our friends at OTC. The Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce (along with many other business and community groups in Greene County) supports both of these propositions.

You can find more information about these propositions on the OTC informational website.

As the state of Missouri’s public affairs institution, it is important that we become educated on these issues and vote today.

Progress on the budget

Last week we made progress on our legislative priorities.

The House passed a budget that restores the $6.4 million cut recommended by Governor Greitens. The budget will now go to the Senate, and we have already begun advocating with leadership in the Senate. You can find more information about the status of the budget in my blog post from last Tuesday.

The legislature also passed the program approval bill. This bill eliminates the prohibitions on Missouri State’s ability to offer new doctorate degrees and replaces them with a statewide framework that includes a pathway for Missouri State to expand its professional doctorate degree offerings. You can find more information about this bill in my blog post from last Wednesday.

Set aside time for the Public Affairs Conference

This year’s Public Affairs Conference starts on April 9. The conference theme is Sustainability in Practice: Consensus and Consequences. Participants will explore best practices for a sustainable future.

The featured speaker is Dr. Robert Ballard, the explorer who discovered the wreckage of the Titanic in 1985. His presentation titled “The personal account of how the Titanic was found and a look into the future,” is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. in Juanita K. Hammons Hall for the Performing Arts.

The full schedule is available on the Public Affairs Conference webpage. All sessions of the conference, including the presentation by Ballard, are free and open to the public. No registration or tickets are required to attend.

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!