News and Music Discovery
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Murray State Provost Finalists Announced

Murray State has announced four finalists in its search for a new provost. Current provost, Bonnie Higginson, announced her plans to retire in September, 2012. She will finish her work as Provost in June.

Dr. Jack Rose chairs the search committee and expects, despite a decision by MSU's board of regents not to extend President Randy Dunn a new contract, to continue with hiring the university's chief academic officer who is often noted as  the "second in command" at a University. 

Rose had served as the Faculty Regent on MSU's board, but promptly resigned after the vote against renewing Dunn's contract on March 15th. Dunn's contract expires June 2014, but it is unclear whether Dunn could receive a buyout or take a sabbatical for the final year of his presidential contract.

The provost finalists include one local candidate, MSU associate provost Jay Morgan. The other three candidates come from Missouri, Texas and Ohio. 

Credit NW Missouri State University

Charles McAdams is dean of the college of arts and sciences at Northwest Missouri State University. McAdams  received the B.S.Ed. from Tennessee Technological University, and the M.S. and Ed.D. from the University of Illinois, all in music education. Since 2004, he has served as dean of the college of arts and sciences at Northwest Missouri State University. Previously, he was chair and professor in the department of music at the University of Central Missouri, where he began teaching in 1983. Prior to that McAdams directed high school band and choir.

Credit MSU
Jay Morgan

Joseph (Jay) Morgan  is a Murray State University graduate with a B.S. in agriculture science and business, and an M.S. in agriculture science. He earned his Ph.D. at Oklahoma State University in agricultural education. He has been the associate provost for graduate education and research at Murray State since 2010. Morgan began teaching at MSU in 1997 in the Hutson School of Agriculture. Prior to beginning his career at MSU, Morgan spent two years teaching and coaching at the high school level.

Credit Lamar University
Brenda Nichols

Brenda Nichols  is a graduate of the University of Evansville with an A.S.N., B.S.N. and M.S. (education). She earned the D.N.Sc. at the Indiana University school of nursing. She is currently dean of the college of arts and sciences at Lamar University in Texas. Former positions in higher education include chair of the Old Dominion University school of nursing, dean of the college of health sciences at Southern Cross University in Australia and director of nursing research at the University of Southern Mississippi. She began her teaching career at Kentucky Wesleyan College in 1977.

Credit Clevand State University
Bahman Ghorashi

Bahman Ghorashi (April 8-9) holds three degrees in chemical engineering — the B.S. from Wayne State University, and the M.S. and Ph.D. from The Ohio State University. He is currently executive director of Fenn Academy and Fenn Research and Development Institute at Cleveland State University, as well as a professor of chemical and biomedical engineering. Earlier, he served as dean of the college of engineering at CSU. He began his career there in 1978, rising through the teaching ranks in the department of chemical engineering.

The four candidates visit MSU’s campus during the first two weeks of April.

MSU's Board of Regents is also forming a plan for a presidential search as they voted against renewing current president Randy Dunn's contract on March 15th.

More details about the visit and the candidates from MSU’s provostsearch web page are below:

The provost candidate finalists, along with their interview dates, are Dr. Joseph (Jay) Morgan, April 2-3; Dr. Charles McAdams, April 4-5; Dr. Bahman Ghorashi, April 8-9; and Dr. Brenda Nichols, April 11-12.
Open forums for faculty will be held for each candidate on the first day of the visit from 12:45-1:45 p.m. in the Freed Curd Auditorium in the Collins Center for Industry and Technology. A presentation and open forum for each candidate for the entire campus community will also be held on the first day of each visit from 3-4:30 p.m. in the Wrather West Kentucky Museum Auditorium.

Chad Lampe, a Poplar Bluff, Missouri native, was raised on radio. He credits his father, a broadcast engineer, for his technical knowledge, and his mother for the gift of gab. At ten years old he broke all bonds of the FCC and built his own one watt pirate radio station. His childhood afternoons were spent playing music and interviewing classmates for all his friends to hear. At fourteen he began working for the local radio stations, until he graduated high school. He earned an undergraduate degree in Psychology at Murray State, and a Masters Degree in Mass Communication. In November, 2011, Chad was named Station Manager in 2016.
Related Content