PSU Foundation ponders improvements to president's home
Larry Fleury
Issue date: 4/23/09 Section: Front Page
The Pittsburg State University Foundation wants to improve the president's home on campus. At a meeting on Friday, April 3, the foundation's 48-member board of directors voted unanimously to begin identifying ways to use private gifts to either improve the existing house 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, says 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," Albright said. "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."
The current president's home was built in 1954 and despite maintenance and repair, it is showing its age. During the 2008 winter, 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.
Brad Hodson, vice president for university advancement and executive director of the PSU Foundation, says that in today's environment, the president's home must function as much more than just a place for presidents and their families 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 house has served PSU well over the last 55 years, he said, but needs to be updated or replaced to fit future needs.
"It is important that it functions well and meets the expectations and demands of the time in which we live."
Cathy Albright, president of the PSU Foundation Board of Trustees, says 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," Albright said. "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."
The current president's home was built in 1954 and despite maintenance and repair, it is showing its age. During the 2008 winter, 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.
Brad Hodson, vice president for university advancement and executive director of the PSU Foundation, says that in today's environment, the president's home must function as much more than just a place for presidents and their families 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 house has served PSU well over the last 55 years, he said, but needs to be updated or replaced to fit future needs.
"It is important that it functions well and meets the expectations and demands of the time in which we live."
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