Incoming president Robert Davies met with University members Wednesday at Heritage Hall to discuss his new presidency and to welcome him to Murray State.

Constantine Curris, chairman of the Board of Regents, introduced Davies and spoke of the board’s unanimous decision to elect Davies based on his drive for excellence and warm and engaging personality.

Davies said he was humbled and honored to be the 13th president of Murray State University and this position is a dream come true and an opportunity of a lifetime.

He said he wants to maintain an established trifecta of academic excellence, focus on the students and service to the region.

“As we focus in on that trifecta, we are indeed creating the finest place that we know,” Davies said. “In doing all these activities, it is about hope, endeavor and achievement.”

Davies said he intends to maintain a student-oriented mindset going into his new position.

He recently met with students at All-Campus Sing and took the opportunity to speak to the crowd as a part of his weeklong visit to Murray State.

“To be able to meet with students at events like All-Campus Sing or to be engaged with them in many different ways provides that foundation for discussion and also breaks down that wall between student and president,” Davies said.

He said he believes it’s more important for the president to have a connection with the students, rather than the students having connections with the president.

That connection, to Davies, will allow him to keep in touch with students’ wants and needs.

Davies spent his week at Murray State attending the Provost’s Concert and All-Campus Sing,

“What I hope to gain is an appreciation for a sense of the context of Murray State and a sense of the traditions and the challenges and the opportunities that we face,” Davies said. “I’m not here to answer or definitively say, ‘this is the direction that we are moving’ or anything like that, but my whole goal is to learn about the Murray State way.

“That’s about the traditions, the culture, the interactions and the relationships of the individuals within the campus, but also in connection to the larger community as well.”

Story by Mary Bradley, Assistant News Editor