News Detail

Foundation explores options for president's home

04/06/2009

The Pittsburg State University Foundation wants to improve the president’s residence on campus. At a meeting on April 3, the foundation’s 48-member board of directors voted unanimously to begin the process of identifying ways in which private gifts can be used to either enhance the existing structure or replace it. It is an issue that has been discussed by the board for more than a year.

Cathy Albright, president of the PSU Foundation board of trustees, said the project sends an important message to the candidates who are now interviewing to become the next president of the university.

“Candidates coming to PSU to interview for the presidency of this great institution need to know that first, the institution takes seriously the president’s role in engaging internal and external constituents, and second, that PSU and the PSU Foundation will be proactive in taking steps to provide the president an appropriate space in which to entertain constituents and for his or her family to live,” Albright said.

Brad Hodson, vice president for university advancement and executive director of the PSU Foundation, pointed out that in today’s environment, the president’s home must function as much more than just a place for the president and his or her family to call home.

“As relationship building and the private gifts that result from those relationships become more central to the university’s future,” Hodson said, “an appropriate facility to entertain internal and external constituents becomes all the more important. The current facility has served PSU well over the past 55 years. However, enhancements to the existing facility or a complete re-thinking of how the university home could serve the institution will need to be discussed to ensure the facility serves the needs of PSU over the next 50 years.”

The current residents of the house, Tom and Koeta Bryant, have used it extensively over the past decade as a front porch for the university. In addition to hosting many student groups each year, the Bryants also use the house for events for alumni, visiting dignitaries, donors, members of the community, faculty and staff.

“It has been an honor for Koeta and me to live in the president’s home,” Bryant said. “Having entertained thousands of alumni, friends, students and staff in that home over the past 10 years, we have seen firsthand its deficiencies. I appreciate the PSU Foundation board of trustees for being proactive in addressing this issue so the next president will have an even better facility from which to build relationships to assist the university.”

The timing of the foundation board’s action was intentional. Board officials said they wanted to begin the initiative before a new president is named. By taking the lead on the project early, the board hopes to avoid putting a new president in the awkward position of pointing out the deficiencies of the house in which he or she lives.

The current president’s home was built in 1954 and despite regular maintenance and repair, it is showing its age. Last winter, for example, a hot water pipe buried beneath the slab floor burst, requiring the main entertaining space of the home to be vacated and the concrete floor to be jack-hammered away to expose the leaking pipe.

Perhaps as problematic as the aging structure and systems is the configuration of the rooms, which make hosting events with more than a handful of attendees difficult.

“Like other buildings on campus, the president’s home is a working building,” Hodson said. “It is important that it functions well and meets the expectations and demands of the time in which we live.”

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