Lee, Gloria: President

Campus presidents are responsible for a lot of jobs such as planning the development of University programs, facilities, organizing meetings, making decisions, and representing the University in public as well as in the community. Presidents of Universities need to plan for the future and must uphold the good reputation of their Universities.

If I were the president of SAU, the first thing I would do is to expand the scholarship programs to attract students with excellent academic standings and leadership abilities. Students are the major component of a university. Without good students, a university would lose its reputation and its credibility. Students who do well in high schools tend to continue to do well in universities and after graduation. Therefore, admitting students based on high admission standards would mean more highly motivated students attend SAU. They, in turn, would make stronger alumni who would give back more funds to the University. During times of economic recession, it is easier to attract students with high potential because they would select universities based upon the scholarships available. Also, I would give more funds to the athletic programs to improve the facilities and their faculty members. Especially, SAU needs better good football players. Football is one of America’s favorite sports and having a good football team would return good reputation to the university. In order to attract good football players and coaches, the university must possess good athletic facilities in which players would train. Having strong athletic teams are important because they are among the representatives of SAU in the community. Lastly, I would provide more funding to advertise the university itself. Before I came to SAU, I had no idea about what the university was like and what were the strong majors here. If students have never heard of this university, how could they choose to come here? Were the university more widely known, it would be easier to attract good students as well as better professors. Students and professors interact together to make the university more prestigious.

To keep a university in a good standing, the president of a university is responsible for many jobs. Several of the important jobs which I rank as the top priorities are recruiting students, improving faculties, and building strong programs. These three components constitute the university and determine whether the university is seen in high regard. I would consider all three factors to improve Southern Arkansas University so that in the future, SAU would become one of the highly ranked national universities.