Dedicated students, distinguished colleagues and dear friends,

Happy Friday!

I had my first lunch meeting with our newest cohort of students where I take my lunch and invite myself to a table of six or seven students in our Havener Center – our campus gathering place. I look forward to my weekly lunch session with random groups of our students where I learn about them and answer their questions – those that I can. The freshest group of our freshmen had been on campus for a week and didn’t know the function and responsibilities of various titles on campus. “What does a dean do?” they asked. “How about VP of research or the provost?”

It occurred to me that many of our students, alumni, legislators and parents of our students often ask similar questions. In particular, the role of the provost, the university’s chief academic officer. So, I asked our provost, Dr. John Harris, who just completed his first year here on campus, to write this week’s Friday message to introduce himself and highlight his observations of the past year. So here it is from the pen of Dr. Harris himself:

It is an honor to write this week's Friday message. I joined Missouri S&T last year as provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs. I earned my B.S. at MIT and my Ph.D. at Caltech, spent nearly three decades at the University of Florida, and later served as engineering dean at Florida Tech. I have always had a fondness for smaller, focused universities, and the vision and energy of our chancellor made coming to Rolla an easy choice.

My first year has only reinforced that decision. S&T has outstanding students who impress me with their talent and drive, faculty doing remarkable work in teaching and research, and staff whose dedication makes everything possible.

It did not take me long to discover something unusual about Missouri S&T. Our alumni do not know how to leave. I mean that as a compliment. They graduate. They build careers and companies. They move around the country and the world. And they remain Miners.

My introduction to our alumni began before I ever set foot in Rolla. Trustee Sue Simmons (ChE 1984) co-chaired the search committee, and I met alumni members of our Board of Trustees on Zoom. The year since has brought more alumni encounters than I could list: the Kummer Missouri S&T Foundation Board, our academies and advisory boards, Homecoming, and my first and best ever St. Pat's. The philanthropy of Fred Kummer (CE 1955) and June Kummer, Gary Havener (Math 1962), and many others has literally reshaped this campus, and I was proud to take part in the ceremony naming our new business school for Dennis Jaggi (ME 1970) and Janet Jaggi. I have met several times with Jon Schneider (AE 1987), who funded an undergraduate research program in his old department, still advises it, and now wants to extend it university-wide. Hundreds of other alumni mentor students, hire Miners, and share expertise in ways that change lives.

That engagement matters because we have big ambitions, captured in our North Star goals. We want to grow our on-campus and onlineundergraduate and graduate enrollment. We want to build on our Carnegie R1 designation by expanding our research program with help from our new graduate school. And we want our national reputation and rankings to match the quality of what happens here.

We are pursuing those ambitions while AI changes our world at breathtaking speed. I do not know what higher education will look like in ten years, but I am certain nobody else does either. I do know this: our graduates will enter a world where AI is everywhere. Employers already demand graduates who can use these tools well. We are making progress. Our job is not simply to teach students to use AI tools effectively, ethically, and responsibly. It is to prepare them to think, create, and lead in a world those tools will continue to reshape.

That is where I need your help. Students, what are we getting right, and what should we change? Faculty and staff, where do you see opportunities we should pursue? Alumni, what are you seeing in your professions that we need to be ready for? And to friends and colleagues across the country and around the world, what should we be learning from you?

Thank you for welcoming me into this remarkable community. I have learned that the strength of Missouri S&T extends well beyond Rolla. It lives in the people who teach, learn, discover, and work here. It lives in friends and colleagues who believe in what this university can become. And it lives in alumni who remain Miners no matter how many years or miles have passed.

Cheers,

-John
provost@mst.edu, send your ideas and challenge mine.

Thank you, John, for a great and productive year.

Warmly, 

-Mo.

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Read previous Friday morning messages.

Check out the latest news from S&T:

• First Richard K. Brow Chair of Glass Science named
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• May graduate establishes scholarship to help future students

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

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