6:00: Morning News

WVSU graduate, presidential candidate wants to ‘bring back Yellow Jacket pride’

INSTITUTE, W.Va. — A 1991 graduate of West Virginia State University is hoping to become the university’s next president.

Dr. Roslyn Clark-Artis, the current president of Florida Memorial University in Miami Gardens, Florida, is one of three presidential finalists. She attended an open forum on the Institute campus Wednesday morning to speak with members of the school’s alumni community.

“I am interested in bringing back our Yellow Jacket pride,” Clark-Artis said.

“The weather is pretty nice,” she said about Florida. “However, this is my home institution.”

Clark-Artis said some of her ideas for moving State forward include increasing student enrollment, expanding international student population, continuing to develop infrastructure and facilities, as well as developing new programs to increase employment opportunities for students.

Expanding WVSU’s diverse population, Clark-Artis said, is important to her because many people of color or out of state students made up the campus she attended years ago.

“You can’t hope to engage those people those people in a meaningful way if there isn’t something on campus for them, so diversifying our student activity offerings and ensuring that everybody feels connected, engaged and valued is going to be important,” she said.

Clark-Artis has led FMU, a private historically black institution with about 1,500 students, since 2013.

She worked as an administrator at the former Mountain State University in Beckley from 2001-2013. The private college ended up selling its campus to West Virginia State University in order to settle a lawsuit in which students claimed they were not provided with quality education.

Clark-Artis was MSU’s executive vice president of academic affairs and chief academic officer from 2009 to 2012 then became provost, according to her resume.

“I am interested in hearing as many opinions as possible. I am very well aware that I do not know everything, so I pride myself on my ability to assemble a team of bright people to help to advise me,” she said of her leadership style.

WVSU officials have not officially announced a list of the finalists, but the other two candidates who visited the campus include Anthony Jenkins, senior associate vice president for student development and enrollment services at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida, and Barbara Lyman, provost and executive vice president at Shippensburg University in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania.

The WVSU Board of Governors are expected to hire a new president Thursday afternoon. A meeting will take place at the Grand Hall of the Erickson Alumni Center at 12 p.m.





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