A retired Air Force general is the State College Board’s preferred candidate for president of Mississippi State University.
The candidate, Robert H. “Doc” Foglesong, was named in a unanimous decision, according to a College Board press release. He will visit campus today for a day-long series of interviews with members of the MSU community.
Foglesong, the director of a nonprofit group that supports promising young people from the Appalachian region, commanded the U.S. Air Forces in Europe and holds a doctorate in chemical engineering from West Virginia University.
He was not one of the candidates mentioned in the abundant speculation during a search known for its secrecy.
“We feel we have a person whose leadership, experience and courage in his past jobs can help Mississippi State succeed,” College Board search committee chair Ed Blakeslee said in the release.
Faculty Senate President Mark Goodman called Foglesong an interesting selection. “Gen. Foglesong will definitely bring some interesting background to the process,” he said.
The faculty will be curious about whether Foglesong’s academic credentials are strong enough, Goodman said. “He is not the first military officer to be named president of a university. Usually, such presidents have some problems to overcome,” he said. “They don’t understand the world of academia, and they don’t understand the politics of a university. That doesn’t necessarily mean that Gen. Foglesong will have those problems.”
Goodman, a member of the search advisory committee whose members signed agreements not to discuss candidates’ identities, could not say whether he had heard of Foglesong before Thursday.
Stennis-Montgomery Association President Edward Sanders, who speculated about the candidates’ identities on his blog, said he had never heard of Foglesong. “Apparently there were some rumors that there was a four-star general in the mix, but nobody knew a name or anything,” he said.
Sanders thinks part of Foglesong’s success was that he flew under the radar, he said. “From the very limited response I’m seeing, the alumni are saying, ‘Sounds like a good guy. Maybe not our first choice, but sounds like a good guy,'” he said.
Ward 4 Alderman Richard Corey sat outside the board room Sunday and Monday during the interviews with candidates to object to how the search was conducted.
“I was concerned that there was no transparency to the process, and not even any elected officials in the area were involved, which is unfortunate because the campus and community do so much together,” he said.
“I didn’t know this person was even a candidate,” Corey said. He said he had no objection to the candidate but only to the process.
Student Association President JR Love said he respects the faculty’s concerns about the secrecy of the search but also respects the College Board’s decision. He looks forward to working with Foglesong if he is named the university’s next president, he said.
Today, Love and other student leaders meet with the candidate for 45 minutes. “I plan on letting him know how great our student body is at Mississippi State,” he said.
“To me it’s kind of a show and tell,” Sanders said. “I think it’s pretty much a done deal at this juncture.”
Robert Foglesong’s military career began in 1972 when he was commissioned through Air Force ROTC.
“I think Gen. Foglesong’s extensive military experience will provide strong leadership for Mississippi State during such a critical time in its history,” said SA attorney general Aaron Rice, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps.
Foglesong is married to Mary Thrasher Foglesong and has hobbies ranging from running marathons and speaking in public to collecting slide rules and potato mashers. He has published 57 items, including a 2005 article about the importance of character in leadership.