Incoming WSU leader outlines goals
PULLMAN – In his first trip here since his hiring in December, the incoming president of Washington State University laid out the priorities that will define his administration in a public address to the school’s campuses Friday.
Among a wide-ranging list of priorities, Elson Floyd said he’d look for WSU to “quicken the pace” of its research efforts and seek “efficiencies and economies of scale” that could redirect more money toward classroom programs and other priorities.
“To the extent we can reduce administration, we will do exactly that,” he said in a speech Friday afternoon.
Floyd arrived in Pullman this week as part of a regional tour that will bring him to Spokane on Monday. Floyd, who is leaving his position as the head of the University of Missouri system, will take over as WSU’s 10th president in July, replacing the retiring V. Lane Rawlins.
In his speech Friday afternoon, Floyd defined what he views as the core mission of the university, including improving the quality of education for students, bolstering the faculty, expanding research efforts, sustaining outreach programs, and helping drive economic development across the state.
“We will make sure we are reaching out to every community in the state,” he said.
He also cited developing a global focus and staying focused on diversity, along with affordability and accountability, among his priorities.
Floyd said that keeping WSU affordable will require a variety of steps, including fundraising and making sure the system is as efficient as possible. Among the hallmarks of his tenure as president of the Missouri system were his efforts to redirect funds from administration toward academic programs and other uses.
“As a university, we have to make sure we are as efficient as we can be,” he said.
He said his priorities added up to making WSU a “comprehensive, global, world-class land-grant research university.”
“That’s a lot of words,” he said. “Each will have a defining characteristic in what we do.”
Floyd’s speech was broadcast to the other campuses in the WSU system in Spokane, the Tri-Cities and Vancouver. He plans to visit all three cities – along with Olympia – early next week.
“He is definitely saying all the right things,” said Kathleen Hagen, a staff member in the College of Veterinary Medicine. “Talking to other people, I’m getting a feeling of optimism and hope.”
Hagen is co-chairwoman of the university’s Presidential Commission on the Status of Women, and she and other backers of a proposal to expand child care on campus wore buttons promoting their plan at Floyd’s appearances Friday.
Shawn LameBull, a project assistant in the division of governmental studies and services at WSU, said he was pleased to hear Floyd’s emphasis on diversity.
“I think it’s a big step to hire a person of color for this position,” he said. “I thought his mention of unity and diversity – though about standard these days – seemed a little more sincere than others I’ve heard.”
Floyd has been president of the University of Missouri system since 2002, overseeing four campuses, more than 63,000 students and a hospital system. He’ll earn an annual salary of $600,000 at WSU, with substantial bonuses in the later years of his five-year contract.
At a news conference following his speech, Floyd said he planned to have students form an advisory group that he would meet with regularly once he takes office. He also said he’d focus on trying to keep top talent at the university, in response to a question about what WSU can do to make it attractive for men’s basketball coach Tony Bennett to stick around.
“It’s important for us to keep the high performers at the university, whether we’re talking about the basketball coach or a chemistry professor,” he said. “We’re going to do everything we can to keep the basketball coach.”