After serving nearly a year as Missouri Southern State University’s interim president, Dr. Alan Marble was named the university’s fifth official president during a press conference held Tuesday, June 3.

“After careful consideration, the Missouri Southern State University Board of Governors unanimously voted to invite Dr. Alan Marble to continue as president of Missouri Southern State University,” said Lynn Ewing, Board chairman. “The Board of Governors believes Dr. Alan Marble is the right person at the right time with the right set of skills to lead Missouri Southern as president.”

Within seconds, Marble responded to the Board’s invitation and accepted the offer to continue as Southern’s University president.

“This university is a special place for me,” said Marble. “I studied here, I grew up here and I graduated from here — so did my sister and my two brothers. My whole family has been through this university.

“As alumnus, I intend to do my very best to make sure that current and future students have the same access to the quality university experience at Missouri Southern as I had.”

Marble originally returned to Southern to fill the role of interim University president in the summer of 2013 as a temporary replacement for former president Bruce Speck, who had left office. Since that time, Marble has taken several steps to help achieve his goal of making MSSU a better place for students, faculty and staff, while the Missouri Southern Board of Governors formed an official search committee tasked with the job of finding a permanent replacement for Speck.

“There are many in this community who voiced the opinion that a search was not necessary,” said Ewing. “Indeed, as they have pointed out quite correctly, Dr. Marble has done everything that the Board expected of him in the role of Interim President.

“Many people in the MSSU family believed the Board should simply appoint Dr. Marble as president … The Board, as a whole, felt it important that the selection process not be short-circuited or truncated.”

Comprised of 15 members from the regional community and the Missouri Southern community, the presidential search committee set out in Jan. to define the qualities they felt were most desired of the new president, and began taking applicants for the position in April.

“Missouri Southern deserves and needs an excellent leader, and that’s what we were charged to find,” said Sherry Buchanan, co-chair of the search committee. “The Board considers the selection of the president one of our most serious obligations to this campus, and the search committee was entrusted with finding outstanding people who might fill that role.”

In response to the Board of Governors’ decision, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon said of Marble, “With a career in higher education spanning nearly three decades, including an accomplished tenure as president of Crowder College, Dr. Marble is an outstanding choice to lead Missouri Southern State University. I am pleased that Missouri Southern and the entire region will continue to benefit from his strong leadership and commitment to college affordability and student success.”