MSU’s new president outlines plan for the future

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Missouri State University’s new president Dr. Richard Williams made the move to Springfield in late June.

For more than nine years, Williams was the president of Utah Tech University. Even though that is a long ways from Springfield, he says he’s very familiar with the Midwest.

“I worked at the University of Northern Iowa and also Indiana State University. So, the climate, we’re used to it,” says Williams. “We’ve already heard the cicadas in the trees. It’s like home.”

In his more than nine years at Utah Tech, enrollment increased by more than 40% and Williams says he’d like to oversee similar growth at MSU.

“My focus will be uniting us as a campus, bringing all the voices to the table,” said Williams. “And it could be we want to increase enrollment by 5000 students in X amount of years. But I think the exciting part of this year is to get everybody’s voice around the table, talk about where we’re at and where we want to go as a university.”

Incoming freshman Asa Bodenhorn says it’s appealing that the new president wants to include students in discussions about the university’s future.

“I think it’s incredibly important to, like, listen to the voices of the people in the school and kind of, you know, change things based on that,” Bodenhorn said.

Williams does acknowledge that Clif Smart’s shoes are big to fill, saying it’s great to take charge of a university that is in such good shape.

“He’s left such a great legacy on this campus,” said Bodenhorn. “It is actually fun to come to a campus that has great momentum, has great budget positioning, has a great future in place. And so, it’s hard to follow. But I’ll have to be my own my own president, my own person.”

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