Finalist withdraws from MSSU presidential search

Wiley, previously president of Rogers State University in Claremore, Okla., accepted the presidency at Freed-Hardeman University in Henderson, Tenn.

Dwight Douglas, president of MSSU’s board of governors and the presidential search committee, said in a news release that the university wished Wiley well and that the committee would proceed with plans to interview the other finalist, Bruce W. Speck.

Speck, who is provost and vice president for academic and student affairs at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tenn., will participate in a public forum at 11 a.m. Wednesday in Billingsly Student Center.

“We are anxious for the Joplin and university community to meet Dr. Speck,” Douglas said in the release.

Austin Peay State University is one of six universities in the Board of Regents System.

Speck served as Austin Peay’s vice president for academic affairs prior to becoming provost and vice president for academic and student affairs. He previously worked as a faculty member and administrator at University of North Carolina at Pembroke. He also served on the faculty at the University of Memphis and Indiana University Purdue University at Fort Wayne.