Many years of service at Kansas State University are coming to an end for university president Richard Myers.
Earlier this year, the former four star general in the U.S. Air Force announced his intent to retire in December 2021. Myers has served as the president of the university since 2016 as well as filling in other roles as well, such as the professor of military history and leadership.
During his time as president, Myers says there has been a lot of great team success including things such as the completion of the capital campaign, which he says is one of his greatest achievements.
“When I became president, they raised the bar on the campaign. It was a billion dollar campaign, they raised it to 1.4 [billion]when I became president, and we finished at 1.6 [billion]. That’s certainly not attributed to me, but the president always plays a role in that piece of our operation here, the fundraising piece, and I spent a lot of time on the road with people from our great Kansas State University Foundation.”
Myers adds that he is also proud of the trends in enrollment numbers since he has been president, as well as the great staff that has been brought in during his tenure, and last, but certainly not least, he is proud of the new budget model he created and feels like overall, he has helped the university become more organized in a business sense.
“The old budget model was, you got the same money you got last year, whether or not your performance was going up or going down. Well, that doesn’t incentivize anybody to change, so we’ve a new budget model. Everybody agreed to it, and we are in our fourth year now. It’s going, I think, better than we probably expected.”
The list of accolades and achievements is definitely long for President Richard Myers, similar to the list of reasons he loves K-State. Myers, who took over as an interim president before applying for the full-time position reflects on the day that he received a phone call asking for him to fill the interim role.
“I told Dennis Mullin, who is here in town, Dennis is the one that called me and I said, ‘Well, yeah I’ll be the interim, but you better have somebody,’ (this was in April), ‘you better have somebody by December or you’re going to see two red dots heading east and those are going to be my tail lights and you’ll have to find another interim.'”
Myers says just four months later and the beginning of a new school year changed that attitude quickly.
“Just the vibes on campus were so exciting. So, I called my wife and said, ‘I think I’m going to apply for the full-time position.’ and she says, ‘Really? Are you sure you want to do that?’ and the family talked it over and, especially my children said if dad wants to do it, let him do it.”
Looking back at it now, Myers says if he wouldn’t have taken that opportunity, he would have regretted it for life.
Now, after five years as Kansas State University President, Myers says it is time to let someone else, someone with fresh eyes and a different vision, to take the step and try to move the Wildcats forward.
“You know, my age. I think I still have a lot of energy and am healthy the best I know. But you don’t want to have something happen to you, health-wise, while you are still here and cause all those issues on campus trying to find someone to be interim or acting or whatever. So, I just thought, let’s plan ahead and see if we can get this done before something like that happens.”
Myers adds that he is also ready to take a step-back and spend more time with his family.
“My first grandchild went off to college last year. The next grandchild is going off this coming year. I’ve got five more after that, and I’d like to spend more time with the grandchildren. We all get along fine, we all have great relationships, but being in Kansas most of the time, I want to get back to Virginia and be part of their lives a little more.”
Myers says his time at K-State has been great, but says his retirement is the right thing for not only him, but also for the university.
A search committee is conducting a nationwide search for Myers’ successor. Earlier this month, the committee submitted a presidential profile, essentially a job description, for the position which was approved by the Kansas Board of Regents. Within that profile, it’s asking applicants to submit their letter of interest by Oct. 15.
