Dr. Bruce Speck knows what kind of university president he wants to be.

“Successful.”

The Missouri Southern faculty assembled in the Billingsly Student Center laughed a bit, and then the candidate to succeed Dr. Julio Leon as University president elaborated.

“I’m not looking for a presidency where you can settle in and get comfortable,” Speck said. “I would like to think that I would have been a president who first of all, would have brought people together.

“I would like to believe that when I left I would have friends.”

Speck’s meeting with faculty followed meetings with community leaders and the public as part of a scheduled itinerary. Speck is the only remaining finalist for Southern’s top post after Dr. Joe A. Wiley accepted the presidency at Freed Hardeman University in Henderson, Tenn.

Speck is currently the provost and vice president of Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tenn.

Speck said improving the institution as a whole, seeing more involvement between the University and the community and private fundraising were also on his list.

Speck described his decision-making process as one of advise and consent with the president as “ultimate decision maker” collecting input from those around him.

“If you don’t consult with faculty, if you don’t consult with staff, if you don’t consult with people then you can come up with this brilliant idea and it can have all these flaws,” he said. “Generally you defer to the wisdom of the people that you are asking. If you’re asking for an opinion and you don’t take it, then the next time they won’t give it to you.

“A president can only bring so much to the table. You really have to tap into the creativity of the people on the campus.”

Speck described APSU as similar to Southern with its population of commuter and non-traditional students. Out of a student population of 9,300, more than 1,500 are military from nearby Fort Campbell.

“We only have 1,400 beds on campus so that tells you that we have a large commuter student population,” he said.

Speck declined to define any specific future plans other than to study situations specific to Southern and take them on a case-by-case basis.

“My first plan is to see if the Board will give me an offer,” he said. “And my second plan is to take it and after that we’ll talk about it.”

The Missouri Southern Board of Governors scheduled an evening meeting with Speck and he will continue his campus tour Jan. 17. A closed session discussion regarding the presidential position is expected during the Board of Governors meeting on Jan. 18.