Dedicated students, distinguished colleagues and dear friends,

Happy Friday!

As you read my message this morning, we have our trustees on campus providing oversight and guidance for our functions. Functions ranging from enrollment to student success, academic affairs, research, innovation, fiduciary, infrastructure adequacy, employment, recruitment, retention, communication, outreach and engagement, and alumni relations, just to name a few.

I am often asked, mainly by our students, alumni and the public, about the role of trustees. Protecting your interest, I say in response. As guardians of public trust, our trustees serve the university; correction, our trustees serve the public. And as they inquire, contemplate our strategies and analyze our operational data, they provide guidance. In the process, we administrators are reminded that our positions, first and foremost, are positions of public trust with distinct obligations to proactive teamwork, quality work on all tasks, with an open books and full disclosure approach.

Another common question is how do trustees function? “Through working in partnership with our leadership team and senior administrators,” I reply. Trustee committees gather data and information they need to ensure that our students are doing well, that the university offers programs of value, and that our students graduate successfully in order to land meaningful jobs and establish rewarding careers.

In other words, our trustees are our campus ambassadors whose life and leadership experiences help us remain focused. They help us calibrate our educational programs based on the needs of industries and constituencies that we serve. They are the financial investors who support our students and liaisons of corporations who employ our graduates. Our trustees listen to and understand the needs of every constituency without being beholden to any. In short, they are volunteers who make good-faith decisions in the best interest of the university.

Here at S&T, our trustees perform most of their work in committees outside the board meetings. Composed of several board members, committees include Infrastructure, Finance, Marketing, People and Organizational Excellence, Research and Technology Commercialization, and Student Success. The committee chairs work closely with relevant members of faculty and the leadership team and then report the outcome of their generative thinking to all the trustees during the full board meetings. The real value added in the committees’ collaborative work is that the carefully selected members with outstanding character and reputation come from fields of work outside the university. 

From our leadership team’s perspective, the reassuring aspect is that our independent, unpaid trustees hold us accountable for the right actions and timely conduct commensurate with our public trust responsibilities.

I hope this brief overview of the role and function of our trustees answers the questions I am so frequently asked and clears up many of the misconceptions of the old paradigms. Perhaps decades ago, some viewed the trustee boards as “alumni clubs” that met for “golf and entertainment!” This does not describe the trustees here at S&T, or at most universities that I am aware of.

In the end, I want to personally, and on behalf of our faculty, staff and students, sincerely thank our trustees for their hard work, steadfast engagement, thoughtful inquiries, and innovative guidance. Please know that your work enhances the vitality of S&T and keeps our mission of success of our students at the forefront of our strategies and execution priorities. 
Warmly, 

-Mo.

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• Missouri S&T’s State of the University address

Mohammad Dehghani, PhD
Chancellor
mo@mst.edu | 573-341-4116

206 Parker Hall, 300 West 13th Street, Rolla, MO 65409-0910
chancellor.mst.edu