Missouri State’s president focuses on keeping Springfield involved

A recent storm reminded Richard “Biff” Williams, Missouri State University’s new president, what it was like to live in the Midwest. 

Before Williams lived in Utah and worked as president of Utah Tech University for about a decade, he lived in Indiana and Iowa and knew how quickly Midwest weather could change. But a Missouri storm in the first part of July reminded him how loud those changes could be. 

“As I woke up, it was pouring, so I needed to turn sprinklers off. I started walking out of the garage in my pajamas, then all of a sudden, there’s light and a big boom,” Williams said, laughing. “I crouched down to the floor and was like, ‘The sprinklers can stay on.’”

Williams and his wife, Kristin, are getting acclimated to southwest Missouri. During his off hours, they have found good trails where they can enjoy runs, and have discovered plenty of great places to eat in downtown Springfield. 

Less than three weeks into his new position, Williams has met with a myriad of university and community members as part of learning his job. Once he gets settled in, a long-term strategic planning process will begin, so that Missouri State can chart its direction for the future. 

But some items demand attention now. The university is joining Conference USA and is in the midst of hiring a new athletic director. Construction is ongoing across campus. The fall semester starts in August.

Williams sat down for an interview with the Springfield Daily Citizen and covered a a variety of topics dealing with his vision for the university, including Springfield’s collaborative approach, how MSU can prepare for the new athletic attention without leaving academics behind, his appreciation for MSU’s public affairs mission and how he can personify a marketing message by making his own prosperous “Missouri Statement” so soon after a beloved president departed. 

Springfield Daily Citizen: I want to start off with a seeming contradiction I read in the most recent alumni magazine. You said that your biggest pet peeve is disorganization, but that magazine also reported that you raised five children. How did you make THAT work?

Williams: I married a very wonderful person. It’s interesting because my wife and I are very organized. What we found is when they were little, she would get up early, go work out, and my job was to get the kids on their chores, feed them and have the house clean. And then she had the rest of the day and I went to work. She had the hard part, I had the easy part, but it was all about coordination. 

Daily Citizen: I imagine your schedule has been packed with interview after interview, and I’m sure you’ve heard no shortage of advice from people in the community about where you should go out to eat. What spots have you and your wife already discovered in Springfield? 

Williams: Our belongings didn’t come till a little bit late. So we stayed at Hotel Vandivort for probably a week. We love downtown and every restaurant we went to was fabulous, so I think it’s a hidden gem down there — what they’ve done for the redevelopment and the places to eat down there. I haven’t doubled any of them because I want to keep trying different places. I was told on my interview that if you like to go out to eat, you don’t have to repeat a place for a year if you don’t want to in Springfield, and I think that’s probably fair.

Daily Citizen: Downtown figures largely in Missouri State’s direction as well. As you get acclimated, do you see further opportunities that intrigue you about how MSU could grow in downtown? 

Williams: I just had a tour of Jordan Valley Innovation Center and the Idea Commons, and I think what we have planned there is just absolutely fantastic. But I think over time, it’ll be interesting to see if we need to capture even more space, because I think it is really electrifying innovation, entrepreneurship and economic development in the community. 

And it’ll be interesting to see as we work with our partners, with the city, and the county and the other educational leaders here, how this might work even into something bigger and better in that downtown community. It just has such a nice vibe and feel, kind of a learn, a work, a play and educate a recreation environment. They’ve done a great job at organizing that, so I’m really curious, as we start our own strategic planning process, as we work with this leadership, how is it going to morph. What I witnessed at JVIC, with the new braider facility and what we’re doing, there’s a lot of cutting edge research going on. There are opportunities for entrepreneurship, opportunities for our students to have a Hands-On kinesthetic type of education is just amazing and I think it’s only going to morph into something a lot bigger. 

Daily Citizen: One of the things we hear a lot is a lot of pride for how groups collaborate and cooperate. The Alliance for Healthcare Education is an example. Having returned to the Midwest, after being in Utah for 10 years, Is there a spirit of cooperation that you see as typical for high performing cities? Or is it really unique here?

Williams: I think it’s not typical for high performing cities, it has to be strategic. And yesterday I attended my first leadership forum in the morning and then I attended my first Alliance for Healthcare Education committee. And it is legitimate here. It’s something that when I sit in that meeting yesterday morning and, you have the cities and the communities in the in the counties and all the educational partners and the tourism, and and they were talking very bluntly, and having open and honest conversations of, how do we solve problems together. But more importantly, when I walked in the room, immediately people came and introduced themselves and they immediately started talking about these are ways that we can work with one another. 

So I think it’s unique here, the level of it. I’m really excited about that. I’ve already had lunch with the mayor and Matt Morrow, over the chamber and Rusty Worley with the Downtown Springfield Association and many others. And it’s been exciting to see the collaboration and the cooperation. 

Daily Citizen: In terms of future collaborations, are there any other industries that you could envision a group collaboration with similar to the alliance?  

Williams: There’s uh always opportunity for further collaboration. I think what we did with the alliance but also what we did with psychology, adding a doctor of psychology program, understanding what that workforce is, partnering with Brightli. I think there are a lot of opportunities there. 

As we start into our long-range planning and our strategic planning, I think that will be an emphasis on how do we serve our community. And I am sure that there are some local businesses that are looking at Missouri State University and how we might help partner with them to decrease their workforce shortages, how we can start training our students to be better prepared when they go out there. I think this is the tip of the iceberg. I think it’s just starting.  

I think we’ve done a good job in the past of being community partners and making sure that we are addressing community needs, but I think this is going to snowball over time. 

Daily Citizen: What has your daily schedule been like so far, meeting after meeting not even 20 days into the job? 

Williams: We’ve hit the ground running … These last two weeks, it’s been really fun to be able to get out and to meet community leaders, to get around campus, visit the facilities and start hearing about the inner workings of different areas such as inclusive engagement. I was in IT this week trying to find out what’s happening on our campus. It’s a lot of listening, it’s a lot of meeting, but it’s exciting because it’s all new for me, and there are a lot of pleasant surprises. A lot of neat things are happening on our campus. And one thing that I can conclude after the, the three weeks, that we have great people on our campus. They are doing great work, and we just need to let them run and I think that’s what we’re going to see. 

But we have a packed 90 days. We probably have a packed six months. I have a transition plan where we’re trying to meet anyone and everyone. And my first day we were texting, I texted some key stakeholders and about 20 legislators. And what I found really refreshing is as I texted them, I just “Hey, this Biff Williams, it’s my cell phone. Looking forward to meeting you,” 100 of the legislators responded.

And then I reached out to all the local university presidents, they all have now responded — and all the presidents in the state of Missouri — and so there is also collaboration in the state, which is really exciting. 

Daily Citizen: That’s awesome that you heard back from all of our legislators here. What did you learn from working with Utah’s lawmakers that prepared you for working with Missouri’s? 

Williams: The most important point that I learned was “Tell the story.” Include the legislature. Let them know what your strategic plan looks like. Let them know who you are and what you aspire to be. Let them know how they can help, because when you do that, they will help you. Everybody wants to be part of a winning team. 

What I learned in Utah is that we were a brand new university — didn’t have a lot of academic programs, not a lot of buildings. We created a strategic plan that was built with the entire campus, the community and the legislators in mind, and we accomplished a lot.  We added more than 200 academic programs, we built or renovated more than 42 buildings. Our budget from the legislature grew about over half, and it’s because they were informed, that we were willing to meet with them. We showcased the students, faculty and staff. 

We also listened a lot. I think it’s important to listen to legislators to see. What are they passionate about? What are what do they think? Or what do they hear from their constituents that we need to address? And I think if we have that relationship early on, that is really important. The one thing I learned is to have a relationship with legislators. Don’t always go with your hand out, make sure that you are serving them as well, because that’s the business we are in. We are serving these students and our communities, and legislators are keeping the pulse on that. 

Daily Citizen: In Missouri, the university system is structured around each one having its own mission, and Missouri State has a public affairs mission. Have you worked with universities with those kinds of specialized missions, and how do you see MSU’s mission either growing or going in another direction? 

Williams: One of the things that attracted me here is that they did have a specific mission, something that can really stand out. My experience is, as we created my last institution, it had a polytechnic mission. That’s my experience of missions, it is  who are you in your strategic plan and what you want to become. 

And I think the public affairs here is our bailiwick, our focus. My excitement around that is, how can I contribute? I’m still learning about the public affairs mission. I’m excited to participate in the upcoming conference and hear from students, hear about their Missouri statement, and what that really means, and is there a place where I can help. As we start our strategic planning process, sure there is going to be a goal that is really going to bolster that and further define it.

But I think we’ve done a great job. If you look at what we’re emphasizing, such as ethical leadership, cultural competence and community engagement, w do those three things really, really well as an institution. But there’s always room for growth. So what is that growth, and how do we find out how we want to grow in each of those areas?

Daily Citizen: One of the big transformations coming, and something you were involved on before your first day, was the move to Conference USA, and the football program graduating to D-I. Your former university did the same thing. What kind of wakeup calls should Missouri State anticipate? 

Williams: I think, as we move our program, there will be more scholarships, and I believe we have that taken care of. But the level of play is definitely a wakeup call. Our football team will see a higher level or higher caliber of teams that they’ll play. Also, name, image and likeness is a lot more important at the FBS level. And so I know we have some groups that are working on the NIL collective and we’ll need to focus on that.

I think we’re going to have to focus on our facilities, because if you look at some of these FBS teams, their facilities are never stagnant. You’re constantly improving them. And we’re going to have to formulate a plan around Plaster Stadium. We are going to need our community, we’ll need them at games. We’re going to need them to help us raise money, and really be proponents of this change, and I think they will be. 

Another wakeup call is how, as you get to that caliber, you might not have as many wins as you hoped to that first year. If you look at Sam Houston State, they just transitioned to FBS after being a powerhouse in FCS, and then I think they won two games last year. It will take a year or two to step up. So, it will be interesting to see, you know, how we handle that. 

But I think the main wakeup call is making sure that we’re funding it properly, that we’re getting fans in the seats, making sure that we scheduled the right schedules. I mean, that’s a craft. You don’t want a schedule. So that you have all these great teams come in and you never win a game. It has to be a balance. 

I think it’s going to be exciting for our community. I think it’s exciting for our team. There will be some obstacles, but we’ll be able to overcome them.

Daily Citizen: One of the big pieces is the hiring of an athletic director. What are some of the things that you’re looking for, and when do you anticipate it being filled? 

Williams: After I learned of this in Utah, I immediately put a committee together with Brent Dunn, vice president of university advancement, chairing that committee. He actually chaired the last committee 14 or 15 years ago. We put together a very strong committee, we put our advertisement out there, and we had about close to 50 applicants. I’ve reviewed most of those and we have a very good pool.

And so the committee is interviewing, uh, eight semi-finalists this week via Zoom and then we’ll probably bring anywhere from three to five, maybe six candidates to campus, and we’re hopeful in the next two weeks schedules will determine when we could do that. I’d like to have a hire sometime this August or September, because we need to really start rolling and getting ready for Conference USA. 

But I’m pleased with the caliber of candidates. We won’t rush this, so if we bring in these highly qualified candidates and it doesn’t feel like the right fit, we’ll start over. This is a very important hire. 

What we really have to look for is, we need an individual who is facing outward and inward, who knows the X’s and O’s, who knows how to run the NIL agreements in the portal, how to hire coaches, and make sure that academics is first and foremost. But we also need an individual who can go out and raise money, who can share the student-athlete experience with the community, so that the community knows what’s happening in Missouri State, and how our intercollegiate athletic program is really benefiting students here. From what I saw, I think we are going to get a really good one.

Daily Citizen: There are people on campus who don’t care about athletics — one of the things I love is how the single largest one-time gift to MSU is going basically to the theater department. How do you as president balance athletics and academics, to make sure that other components of the university don’t feel left behind? 

Williams: I think through a collective strategic plan, the building of a plan where everybody feels like they are at the table. And one thing that I’ll tell the faculty and the staff is that all ships have to rise, that we have different tenets of the university. All are very important, the arts, athletics, academics in each of the colleges, the student experience and the public affairs mission. 

I think sometimes in higher ed, we think that we have to go a mile wide and an inch deep. We don’t have to,  and so we will be determining if we are a half-mile wide and three miles deep in certain areas, that doesn’t mean that we leave anyone out. My polytechnic experience at Utah Tech was that the arts were like, “Wait a minute, we’re going tech and STEM, what’s happening?” But through collaboration with them, we found that polytechnics really focus a lot on the liberal arts. So although you were going a half-mile wide and three miles deep in the polytechnic area, you still have education, business, the arts, the humanities. That is allowing an opportunity for each of us to rise there. 

And there are different pools of money. A lot of the times if we’re building a building (for athletics), you’re not going to see a state appropriation unless a governor really responds to athletics. I have never seen that happen, but it could happen. 

I think it’s telling the story of where the funding is coming from, making sure everybody feels like we’re staying on mission, that we’re realizing our strategic plan. That’s why this year will be so important as we start the strategic planning process, to make sure everybody knows that this will be our plan.

Daily Citizen: MSU is in the process of completing an academic realignment. One of the presidential candidates, Provost John Jasinski, was very important to that process. What are your thoughts about the realignment and how it meshes with your experience? 

Williams: As I studied it, I think what the deans have done to come together and really put the mission of the university first, and then collaboratively look at academic affairs and realign it, and bring different faculty together and organize it, I think they’ve done a great job. Provost Jasinski has done an excellent job of bringing to light a culture of collaboration and transparency. Not everyone likes change, but I think from my seat, I think what they’ve done has been very beneficial to the university. I think it sets us up for further planning of creating an academic plan, identifying what are the academic programs of the future that we need to be adding, are there academic programs that we need to retool, are people in the right seats on the bus. 

I think the the the Reynolds College is a perfect example… There was probably some trepidation, I wasn’t here so I don’t know, but look at how powerful that college is now. Look at what they’re doing, how they’re collaborating with one another. We have a bright future because of what the deans, Jasinski and the academic affairs team have really done with that realignment. 

Daily Citizen: Missouri State doesn’t go anywhere without enrollment and without affordable tuition rates. What are some of the strategies you have in mind to keep tuition rates where they are and to help boost enrollment?

Williams: I think when it comes to affordability that has to be top of mind, because we want to educate as many Missourians as we can. I think it’s important to balance what are the needs of the students? And when we are increasing tuition, why are we increasing tuition? How does that serve our students? And how does that improve, what we’re offering to those students. 

So, we’ll be very mindful of any type of in tuition increases. I think looking in my short three weeks that I believe we are good stewards of the taxpayer dollars, I think we’re good stewards of the tuition dollars that come in. I think we’re trying to give the best service to these students. So that will be top of mind for us. 

As for enrollment, it goes back to what we talked about before, really telling our story. When I first got to Utah Tech, our budget was right around $50 million and when I left it was right over $100 million. People asked, “How’d you do that?” It was creating a vision that people believed in. And so I think that as we create our strategic plan as we talk about the importance of affordability and serving our students, the increasing enrollment strategies that we’re going to put in place to increase enrollment to, to keep tuition down to convince those legislators that they want to invest in higher education right now. 

In the public, the return on investment is being questioned, and I think we at Missouri State have to answer that question. If you come to Missouri State University, what you’re getting is different than than not going into an institution of higher education and getting a degree.

Daily Citizen: When I try to put myself in your shoes, one of the things that I’m absolutely dumbfounded about how to approach is replacing not just a popular president, but an active one — you’re going to bump into Clif regularly at meetings. How do you balance keeping up with what he started, yet moving forward with what you have to offer? 

Williams: That’s a great question. President Smart has done just a phenomenal job. I never wanted to follow a president that was beloved, but I saw the value of it because he set such a strong foundation, especially in the community. They know that Missouri State University is going to collaborate with the community. They know Missouri State loves the community, and will continue to. I think that’s a benefit. 

I think where I come in and what is my direction is really going to be our direction. I think Smart was very successful because he allowed his great team that he hired to run and to lead, and I think that those individuals are still in place.

I think that as we are looking at the higher education landscape, it’s going to change immediately. It’s already changing; I’ve been here only a few weeks and there are certain things that we need to address. It’s just a new environment. And so I think that my direction will be probably a little different because it has to be. 

I love the fact that President Smart is here in town. At my last institution, I had one former president still on faculty and three others who were in the community. And they bring a lot, and people like to see them, and that they love the university. I know he is going to be a football games because he is passionate about athletics, and he’s going to be at the arts, because he supported the arts a lot. I think that’s good for the community, and it’s nice for me because if I need some advice, I have a seasoned president that I can just talk to and ask what he might think.

Joe Hadsall

Joe Hadsall is the education reporter for the Springfield Daily Citizen. Hadsall has more than two decades of experience reporting in the Ozarks with the Joplin Globe, Christian County Headliner News and 417 Magazine. Contact him at (417) 837-3671 or [email protected]. More by Joe Hadsall