Crimson and Gold Connection; Dr. Steve Scott

Welcome to Crimson and Gold Connection, keeping you connected to the people and current events at Pittsburgh State University. This is Trent Johnson. Thanks for joining us for Crimson and Gold Connection. Today our guest is President of Pittsburgh State University, Dr. Steve Scott. Today we're joined by President, Dr. Steve Scott of Pittsburgh State University. Well, Dr. Scott, thanks so much for joining us today. It seems like only yesterday we were welcoming a new class of freshmen on the campus and now we're just a few weeks away from the end of the semester. What has been the highlight of the semester for you? Well you know it's really hard to say we've had so many different things that have occurred during the semester and really in many ways historic or major milestones along the way but all in all it's been a very good semester. Exciting one and a couple things I would mention certainly in the academic realm. Starting our new doctor of nursing practice was a huge step for Pittsburgh State University and we've existed since 1903 and throughout that time we've never been able to offer a doctorate and starting this summer with students beginning in the fall classes. We have a doctoral program underway and that is

very very exciting. I know our alums and donors and supporters in the community feel very good about that and so do we. And standing that program up right now on a very difficult economic time was not easy to do but great support from the nursing faculty, arts and sciences, deans, office and provost. We made that happen. In October we had the Kansas Board of Regents come through and they had their visit on the campus and with three new board members and a very young and very new board it's important that they really get a dose of Pittsburgh State pretty early and I think we really showed well. They walked away feeling very impressed by Pittsburgh State. One of them did make a comment that we're not very happy about and that is he said this is a hidden gem and that is not where we want to be and he knows that but that's still out there and that's something we've got to continue to work on to build our brand and build kind of marketing strategy that helps people understand how special this place is. We did launch our pathway to prominence. It's our new strategic plan for the university. It's been approved by the Kansas Board of Regents in January and February. We'll roll out some things regarding that that I think is really going to help guide the institution for the coming year and you know this fall as we

opened this semester we opened the Jack Overman Student Center with this expansion and renovation that was an exciting time but last week we had another milestone when we announced a two million dollar gift from my brother Lee Scott and his wife Linda to start a nationally prominent speaker series and very very excited about that and then of all things as Lee wanted to do he wanted to have a blowout speaker that first time out the inaugural speaker and really landing Bill Clinton as that inaugural speaker was a huge deal for the campus for the speaker series and certainly I got a kick out of it as well so very very exciting to take that step. That is very exciting news I'm actually glad that you brought that up you just mentioned it you have a special connection to H. Lee Scott but perhaps just as importantly he has a special connection to Pittsburgh State would you explain how this speaker series came about and it's important to not just our campus but to the community as well. It is pretty interesting to think that we grew up in Vaxter Springs pretty small town we both graduated in high school classes of probably 65 to 70 students

took very different paths he went off into the retail world and I went off into the education world but certainly spent a lot of time together travel together over time over the last number of years been very very supportive of each other's careers over time I've been very proud of the work that he's done and I know he's been very proud of the work that I've done here at Pittsburgh State he's a 1971 graduate of the University which is a pretty exciting connection as well I had talked to them a number of times about an opportunity I felt like we could take advantage of of really elevating the campus through a speaker series it just makes a difference when you can have people like Bill Clinton come to your campus and speak directly to your students into the community it creates a buzz it creates it just elevates and it really moves the stature of the institution and notch above where it was and that was the goal and Lane Linda both they they bought into that they liked that and they like to think about doing something that was enduring and not just a one-time maybe help with the project of building or something like that but something that was so

enduring that other people weren't doing and a unique thing for the University so it's pretty neat to think back growing up on 14th Street and back to Springs Lane I actually shared a bedroom I was back in a time where not every child in the household had their own bedroom and shared a room and grew up in a great situation great character great values were taught to us by our parents and certainly the community and now for the two of us to come together and make this happen it's just almost overwhelming we also have a little bit of a connection to Bill Clinton and I talked about that at the announcement where two different occasions Kathy and myself Lee and Linda have spent some time with Bill Clinton and really one of the moments of my life that I'll never forget and again reflected on that of thinking guys two guys that grew up in back to Springs having an opportunity to sit with the world leader and talk about the national economy your health care or social issues it's just been a great experience it's clear that private giving is vital to the continued strength of Pittsburgh State University you've taken steps to ensure that Pittsburgh State remains a destination of choice for students and faculty by

launching a new capital campaign what can we expect with this new campaign well this campaign is very important to our future and it's particularly important right now because as you look at the Kansas legislature and the leadership in Topeka what's going on there they would tell you and they would tell us that they believe in higher education they believe in K-12 on the other side of the ledger though is a revenue situation it's not very good so even though they want to support us and they support us in the past are going to have a hard time supporting us are really expanding their support in the future because of the revenue shortfalls which we heard more about this past variety so that really makes private giving much more important because as the state support wanes that puts pressure on tuition and we need that private support to help mitigate those tuition increase costs our students deserve the kind of support that our donors have given them in the past and they're really going to need more support as we go forward the campaign that we've announced is a three-year fifty-five million dollar campaign it's very aggressive but it's

going to focus on student scholarships faculty development program support and also of course from capital projects but I'd say when you have a capital campaign that's poised to and really challenge to raise fifty-five million dollars over three years and this summer we announced you know a three million dollar gift to the business building project and a two million dollar and we just announced in terms of the speaker series when we get gifts at that level it's pretty clear to me we can make some real progress on this campaign we can do some good things for this campus it's a critical time so those who are listening and thinking about supporting Pittsburgh State University we would say there's never been a better time to invest in this institution President Scott thanks so much for joining us today that's all I have for you and thanks again it's great to be here thanks for having me again today our guest was president of Pittsburgh State University Dr. Steve Scott for KRPS and Crimson and Gold connection this is Trent Johnson join us for Crimson and Gold Connection Wednesdays at 8.50 and Fridays at 350