2008 Woodie Awards
FAREWELL TO FLOYD
UMKC honors departing President Floyd
Emily Iorg
Issue date: 3/19/07 Section: News
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Those people, he said, were the best part of his job.
"Getting to know the students and faculty and staff up close and personal," Floyd said was his favorite experience in serving as UMKC interim chancellor after the departure of former chancellor Martha Gilliland.
The farewell reception in the Performing Arts Center allowed the UMKC community to honor the man who has led the UM System since January 2003. Floyd will next serve as president of Washington State University at an annual salary of $600,000.
Floyd thinks the University will continue to expand and mentioned Hospital Hill.
"I see UMKC as becoming more residential than it is now," he said.
Floyd stressed growth in academic achievement and student life in regard to UMKC Chancellor Guy Bailey's construction plans.
"We need to continue to grow the capacity of the institution," Floyd said.
Bailey noted that during Floyd's tenure, enrollment grew to more than 63,000 students total at the four UM System campuses - 7,000 more students than when Floyd took office.
"That didn't come by accident," Bailey said. "That's a result of Elson's work."
Floyd also hired chancellors for all four UM System campuses.
"I've never been in a system where chancellors were more on the same page," Bailey said.
Bailey also praised Floyd's commitment to stabilizing tuition.
Other speakers, listed in the order they spoke, included Angela Bennett, former Board of Curators chair; newly appointed curator Warren Erdman; Leo Morton, chair of UMKC Trustees; staff member Heather Swanson; associate professor David Renz, Beth K. Smith/Missouri Chair in Nonprofit Leadership; UMKC senior Sofya Galich, former Student Government Association executive vice president; and Darwin Curls, director of community affairs for Congressman Emmanuel Cleaver's office.
"Elson Floyd is the best president that the University of Missouri System has had," Bennett said. "He's a visionary who has achieved many, many things for the university."
The UM System had a $5.6 million deficit when Floyd came, Bennett said, and the system is now $33.2 million in the black.
Floyd also visited every county in the state, she said.
"I think when history looks back at this period in the history of the University, it will say that 'This was a time when a difference was made,'" Morton said.
Curls read a congratulatory letter to Floyd presented before the House of Representatives. It will be kept at the Library of Congress.
Bennett then read a proclamation from Mayor Kay Barnes honoring Floyd for, among other things, helping establish the Institute for Urban Education at UMKC and securing $1 million to help renovate the E.E. Thompson Courtroom in the School of Law. The proclamation declared March 15 Dr. Elson S. Floyd Day in Kansas City.
"What we must do as a University is to embrace Kansas City," Floyd said after he and his wife Carmento accepted gifts from Bailey and wife Jan Tillery. "There's no doubt in my mind that UMKC is one of the great universities. We have a world-class group of faculty."
Floyd said his time serving as UMKC's interim chancellor made him a better president. He offered a challenge to the audience.
"Continue to provide your unwavering support to Chancellor Guy Bailey," he said, noting that UMKC must keep its doors open and control costs.
Faculty senate chair Gary Ebersole praised Floyd's support of shared governance in decision-making.
"A lot of administrators speak it, but few live it," Ebersole said. "There's only one administrator whose departure I will lament in 25 years."
eiorg@unews.com
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