Interim President Sours assures community of a ?New MSU?

BECKLEY ? Mountain State University Interim President Dr. Richard Sours has reached out to let the community know that MSU has changed.

?We act differently, we think differently, we do our work differently and we are perceived differently,? Sours said in an e-mail to the MSU community. ?All of this is because MSU is, in fact, a very different institution than we were a year or two ago.?

A team from MSU traveled to Chicago May 7 to meet with a panel of five trustees of the Higher Learning Commission, where Sours said they spent over two hours answering questions from the trustees.

?Part of our objective in making that presentation was to convince them that we are a completely different institution than the one they encountered a year ago and decided to place on Show Cause.?

Changes noted during the meeting include new presidential leadership, new administrative structure, smaller teaching loads, longer-term contracts for full-time faculty and a new short- and long-term planning process.

?It is completely appropriate to use the phrase ?The New MSU? when describing our university today,? Sours said.

Sours said ?The New MSU? will focus on a new vision, which will be geared toward students and academic quality, and new institutional values, which include integrity, transparency and collaboration.

?Creating ?The New MSU? is both challenging and exciting,? Sours said, but he says he is glad to have the opportunity to help build it.

The HLC will meet at the end of this month, Sours said, and MSU will receive a formal letter sometime at the beginning to middle of July with its accreditation decision.

?I remain optimistic. I wouldn?t stay at Mountain State if I wasn?t. I think we are in compliance with the Higher Learning Commission standards and that?s the case we tried to make in Chicago.?

He says there are a lot of factors to consider and he does not want to predict the outcome of the HLC?s decision.

No matter what that outcome is, Sours said MSU is prepared.

?The worst scenario is that the HLC should withdraw our accreditation. They have an internal appeals process and we will definitely appeal, not just to say we don?t like your decision, but to say we think that we do satisfy the HLC requirements.?

Sours is hopeful, but remains realistic as well.

?We?ve taken a hit in the media and we?ve lost some credibility. We have to rebuild and it?s not an overnight fix. We have to consistently behave in a different way and keep doing it over time so people regain the trust in the university that we need. I?m optimistic that we will do that.?

? E-mail: wholdren@register-herald.com

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