President Robert “Doc” Foglesong and student affairs vice president Bill Kibler announced the beginning of a search for a new vice president of external affairs.
Current vice president Dennis Prescott is leaving to take the position of the vice president for development at Baylor University in Texas.
Foglesong said the search for vice president is literally just beginning.
“I have no one in mind for the job, so this is a wide-open search,” Foglesong said. “We are looking for the best of the breed.”
The most important role of the vice president of external affairs is to be responsible for the Alumni Association, Foglesong said. The vice president is also responsible for dealing with donations from private services and corporations.
“The Alumni Association is really important because we have over 100,000 living Mississippi State alumni,” Foglesong said.
Prescott said the best part about being the vice president of external affairs was meeting interesting people, and he really enjoyed working with MSU alumni and the MSU Foundation.
“The MSU alumni are wonderful people who want to be extremely involved with the university,” Prescott said. “They want to help advance the university and they ask for very little in return.”
Prescott said there is no question that he had a positive experience during his time at MSU.
The search committee will look for someone who has a mixture between knowledge of technical skills and a great personality. The vice president also needs to be professionally capable to take on anything.
“The person who holds this position will need to be able to understand the laws of donations,” Foglesong said. “We are looking for a good organizer with strong leadership qualities because it is important that the alumni association is organized.”
Foglesong said the search for a new vice president will most likely not be a short one.
“Normally these processes take months, not weeks,” Foglesong said. “It takes a while to advertise and interview people. I think that we will have a significant number of applicants for this job.”
Foglesong said the search committee will search as long as it takes to find someone who will be a significant part of MSU’s financial and spiritual health.
Prescott will begin his position at Baylor University on January 8, 2007. Executive director of the alumni association Jimmy Abraham will serve as the interim vice president for external affairs until the search committee finds someone to fill the position.
Bill Kibler was not available for comment.