Crimson and Gold Connection; Dr. Steve Scott

Welcome to Crimson and Gold Connection, keeping you connected with the people and current events at Pittsburgh State University. This week on Crimson and Gold Connection, it's my pleasure to welcome Dr. Steve Scott, President of Pittsburgh State University. Welcome Dr. Scott. It's great to be here Rob. Thanks for having me. It's been quite a year. We've just wrapped up commencement of Pitt State and that was quite some events. Well, it's been an exciting weekend that we just completed. And I mentioned this in my comments to the graduates that it's not only a great moment for them as they walk across that stage. It's a huge moment for Pittsburgh State. As the faculty and staff, administration, everybody really gets an opportunity to kind of think about what have we gotten done? And we got them to the finish line. And of course, our support for them doesn't end at that moment, but it still is an important moment to celebrate the success of the students. And then also, congratulate ourselves a little bit on a job well done because it takes a lot to get those kids across the stage and have the kind of success we're having. I want to slightly different note and looking ahead. One of the big issues which is facing the whole state and Pittsburgh State in particular is the upcoming state budget and whether Governor Brown back is going to sign off on some of this.

And you had some things that you wanted to say about the budget and where Pittsburgh State is actually looking at this time. Yeah, we've reached the end of the legislative session, which honestly is always a huge relief to us. Legislators, they'll arrive in Topeka with certain agendas and certain things they'd like to get done. Some of those things are helpful to us. And honestly, some of those things are distractions and some of those things are very, very difficult for us to deal with. I'm really, really proud of the team we have that's advocated on our behalf. Sean Nakarato does an amazing job of building relationships in Topeka. Riley Scott is also a contract lobbyist force. We were very open about that that we've contracted Riley to be in the middle of it and to engage and to help us have the best information possible and also to try to position ourselves in the room or at least right outside the door when those decisions are being made. So it couldn't be more proud of that team and of course they call upon me to be there at certain times and to make the right phone calls at the right time and we're doing that. I think we've done a nice job of energizing our base. We have a base to political folks too, but so does Pittsburgh State. It's called guerrilla alumni. And they are very good also at reaching out to legislators and that matters and we'd actually like to see more of that.

But at this point in time, we've had some things that really we think will be beneficial to us. There was something called the P3 legislation that's public private partnerships that the legislature had delved into and really wanted to control that legislation all dropped out at the end. We've got the horsepower locally. We've got the capacity to make the decisions keep the legislature informed certainly get the approvals of the board that are needed to move projects forward like the plaster center like the downtown project that we're looking at right now. We really don't believe we need to go to the legislature nor should we nor would they add value if we went to the legislature for their approval. Something that also dropped out was the tuition cap and really it's not like we want to raise tuition, but we really believe that's our responsibility. It's the Board of Regents responsibility, not the Kansas legislature. And that's diced to tell a group that provides 34, 35 million dollars in funding that we want that decision not you. But I think that's what we need to do with leaders. It's the right position for us to be in. I've been pretty outspoken about my concern about the budget situation.

I'm a longtime Kansas. I grew up in Kansas. I cared deeply about this state. I cared deeply about Pittsburgh State University. So when I see the state, I see the university hurting or being hurt by some of the directions that we're taking, it's hard for me not to speak up. I think I need to be that voice. And I feel better about the internal constituents we have. They really appreciate the advocacy. I've had a lot of the farming comments and also from alums as well in the community. Things changed when the Highway 69 project was delayed. I think all of a sudden people in Southeast Kansas got the idea that things have changed. So not only was the university going to be cut a million dollars, but we're going to lose our road. And that got people fired up. They have a sense they were promised the road and now the road is kind of being pulled out from under them. So we're working hard not only to reestablish and get the kind of funding we need, but we also care deeply about that road. We're working hard on that and we'll continue to advocate for that. That's important for Pittsburgh State too. That's a common interest we have with the community. And it's our obligation, I think, to advocate for that. So right at this moment we're waiting for the governor to either sign or not sign the budget bill.

There's a proviso in it right now in terms of how the budget cuts are done. And for the first time ever they're considering the larger institution would pay a little bit more the price of the cut. Not everybody's happy about that. We've had a local senator take that on and we've not really encouraged him to do that. We've not promoted that, but can't blame me for taking a run at it. But we're waiting to see what the governor does with that and I'll probably be speaking to the governor in the next couple of days. Talking about some of the challenges we have and some of the challenges are being created by the revenue picture in Kansas and I can assure internal constituents or external constituents that community that I'll speak very directly to the governor and seek his support for Southeast Kansas. I was interested you were talking earlier about some of the projects which are going on inside Pittsburgh. One of those that you mentioned was the downtown project. Could you say a little bit more about that? I am very pleased to you. That's a project we're very excited about. We've not made a final decision yet so I need to frame it in that regard. But the city basically came to us a number of months ago and said they had an idea about putting student housing downtown obviously with our support and our total engagement.

So we have a private developer led by a young man named Matt Burton who was once the student body president of Pittsburgh State University. And now he's the COO of a company called the casino group. So as the city engaged us as a casino group is engaged us in these conversations about it and we really studied it very deeply. We have an opportunity to put as many as 110 one bedroom efficiencies as the way they referred to. And if you think about putting 110 students downtown we have the opportunity to really revitalize the downtown we could really add to that. We've got some decisions to make as we go forward but in the end this would be very very good for Pittsburgh. It would be very good for the downtown community. And it would also add a completely different kind of housing unit than we've had. So in conclusion you would say then that we have some challenges ahead but it's been an exciting year and then maybe exciting times to come. Yeah it was an amazing year. In all measures there's just no doubt about it and I'm committed to and I think everybody on this campus is committed to the next year being even better despite an amazing level of challenges.

We know we've got a lot of challenges out there and I was talking to a faculty member the other day it was his retirement reception and he said something to me nobody has ever said to me. He said you know given all the things we face he said I figured out your tough. And you know I never even thought about that. And I guess as I drove away from that event it was Sunday afternoon I thought it's not me it's us. This is a persistent and tough group of people that we believe in what we're doing. We care deeply about what we're doing and we're so focused on student success and helping this community grow and develop that will work our way through just about anything. Dr Steve Scott, President of Pittsburgh State University. Thank you very much for joining us. Thank you Rob. 4K RPS in Crimson & Gold Connection. My name's Robert Smith. Join us for Crimson & Gold Connection Wednesdays at 850 and Fridays at 350.