Clif Smart reminisces on 13 years as MSU President

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Students and staff at Missouri State University (MSU) are saying goodbye to outgoing President Clif Smart. It’s a title he’s held for over a decade overseeing significant growth. Smart first became interim president in 2011 after Dr. James Cofer resigned.

“As general counsel, it [was] part of my job to help negotiate the terms of [Cofer’s] departure,” Smart said. “I did that over the course of a week and presented it to the board, and then they asked me to be interim president.”

President was a title Smart wasn’t exactly looking for.

“I declined [interim president], suggested other people,” Smart said. “They in turn suggested me. Thought I would do it for a short amount of time and go back to my lawyer job. We had a good year. We fixed some things. The board encouraged me to apply for the job permanently, and [I] just finished up year 13. The university, I think, is in a better place today than when we started.”

It was a busy 13 years for Smart, as he set out to grow and improve the university in many ways.

“I think obtaining the professional doctoral designation for the university is the most significant long-term thing we’ve done,” Smart said. “That involved getting a statutory change and then approval at the state level and approval with the higher learning commission. We’re able to start a doctor of education program with a three-week approval process instead of a three-year approval process.”

Smart also worked on adding new buildings on campus while renovating others. Some of the notable upgrades Smart mentioned include the Rec Center, the Welcome Center, the Medical Center, and the renovation of Temple Hall to Roy Blunt Hall.

“The funding for the Roy Blunt Hall, that’s a huge project,” Smart said. “That’s the biggest construction project in the history of the university [at] $125 million. That’s going to be a real game changer for the sciences, which we’re frankly operating in substandard space.”

During Smart’s tenure, he faced the challenges the COVID-19 pandemic brought to campus.

“We thought it was really important that in the fall of 20, we reopened and that students had a real experience,” Smart said. “We did have mask requirements for a period of time. We did have vaccine encouragement. We got over 95% of our employee population vaccinated. We wanted to do as much as we could to make it as meaningful for students as we could. I really think that was the key to not dropping off in terms of enrollment.”

There are memories Smart said he will take with him as he leaves campus. Some of those include the first trip to China with his wife, interviewing Colin Powell on stage for a speaker series, and the MSU chorale performing at the 2017 presidential inauguration.

“Being a part of the transition of government and and having our students right in the middle of that was a huge memory,” Smart said.

There’s one thing Smart will cherish and that’s his engagement with students throughout the years in-person and creating videos for social media.

“We’ve got almost 26,000 students as part of our university system,” Smart said, “We’re in business to help them become educated people and start careers. I think it’s important that they know who I am and know something about me and that I know something about them. That helps me be a better president. I think it also helps cement them to the university if they sense they have some kind of relationship with me, even if it’s a virtual one.”

Smart said he and his wife Gail will stay in Springfield, a placed they have lived for the last 31 years.

“[I’m] still going to be involved in the community, still on a variety of boards,” Smart said. “Probably more volunteer work, more engagement with church, still going to chair the Missouri Partnership which recruits new industry and business to our state.”

Smart will officially retire on July 1. He also plans to spend more time with his grandkids.

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