By: Kraig Pierce
With the departure of Fort Hays State University’s previous president, Dr. Mirta Martin, comes the hope of stability and progression in and around the university. Each president in the history of FHSU has had their own personal goals and milestones that they wanted to see achieved on campus while their time in the office lasts; is this the same mindset that our interim president holds? Since he will only be here for a year (unless he is officially offered the job as the official president of FHSU), is he going to look towards more short-term goals rather than focusing on the long game?
In short, Dr. Andy Tompkins is doing anything but focusing on the short term. Having served as a dean at Pitt State, an educator at KU, and the president and CEO of the Kansas Board of Regents, it would be hard to find someone who is more qualified to be the president of Fort Hays State University, even if it is for a limited time. That being said, Dr. Tompkins has enough experience in administrative roles to know that to focus only on short-term goals would not be beneficial to the university. As a matter of fact, he claims that goals are not something that should be held by one individual, rather, a collective goal. This idea should be refreshing to the everyone at FHSU, especially the administration and faculty, due to the ideological chasm that divided the two before the departure of Dr. Martin.
Without a doubt, the university needs someone who will unify the individuals that were at ends at the end of the fall semester, and it looks like we will get that in Dr. Tompkins. His attitude and demeanor are that of a leader who knows what they are doing in an administrative role.