Dr Vic Morgan: Mathematician and Educator

Dr Vic Morgan is president of Sul Ross State University. With 18 years of leadership, he is the second longest reigning state college president in the history of Texas. The former math professor sat down with Big Bend Sentinel reporter Mark Glover to discuss the University’s past, present and future as an institution of higher learning in the Big Bend Region of Texas.

Glover: Dr Morgan, you served as unofficial, acting, interim and finally after a nation-wide search, the official president of Sul Ross State University after being appointed by the Board of Regents in 1989 during the Ann Richards Administration. What do you like about the job?

Morgan: Watching students develop, grow and graduate. The highlight for me of each semester is the Commencement Ceremony. That’s what we’re all about. Helping the students become successful.

Glover: After graduating from High School in Bangs, Texas you received a Bachelors at Howard Payne, a Masters at Vanderbilt and a PHD from the University of Missouri, all in math. If you had to do it over again would you still choose math?

Morgan: Absolutely.

Glover: How has math tweeked you and how can it help students?

Morgan: I think it makes me a better problem solver, a better analyst. But I don’t know how true that is; there are other good university presidents who are geologists, historians, writers. For students I think it helps them to come up with solutions. It’s the basis for anything you want to do.

Glover: What about the “flat earth” theory and the rumble that American students are lazy when compared with Indian and Chinese students?

Morgan: The ancient Greeks said the same thing about their next generation. We live in a global society. But that does not mean that nerds rule. Put the best American students up against the best Indians or Chinese and we’ll do just fine.

Glover: What about open enrollment at Sul Ross? Can anybody get in?

Morgan: We don’t have open enrollment. Our admitting standards require that a new college freshmen be at the top ten per cent of their graduating high school class. If not then they must score at least a 20 on the enhanced ACT test or 920 or better on the verbal and math SAT and be in the upper half of their graduating High School class. If they don’t meet these standards they can be admitted probationally based on performance scores or if all else fails, they can appeal by writing an appeal letter. This shows motivation and an interest in attending college. Kids deserve an opportunity to go to college.

Glover: What is your philosophy of education?

Morgan: Our goal is to help students learn to learn, not to fill their heads with facts and figures. To teach them to learn to make effective decisions and become effective citizens. They’re not going to enter the job market and stick with a company for thirty years like their parents did. They’re jobs don’t even exist yet and likely they won’t last more than 3-5 years. They have to know how to re-train themselves.

Glover: What is the most frustrating part of your job?

Morgan: Funding is always frustrating. We can’t pay faculty and staff what they’re worth. And 85 per cent of our students have a documented financial need as compared to UT Austin where it runs 12-20 per cent. 65-70 per cent of our students are first generation college students. (Dr Morgan earns a reported $ 200,000 per year plus benefits).

Glover: Is Texas Tech taking over Sul Ross State University?

Morgan: If they are, they haven’t talked to me about it. It’s a legislative process. It has to go through Austin first.

Glover: Your wife Mary Jane, among other posts, is part of the TAKS Committee at Marathon Independent School District.

Morgan: Yes, She got involved two years ago when they were a low-performing school, helping to revise curriculum and provide tutoring. Now I believe they are a recognized school and doing well.

Glover: Marathon rancher Jack Pope helped save Sul Ross at one point.

Morgan: Yes, Jack was a member of the Texas Supreme Court in 1985 and helped fight off an attempt to close the college by suggesting to the legislature that if they did close it, they’d be building another soon to do the same thing.

Glover: Being on the edge of the desert, some people look up at the university on the hill and see it as a water guzzler, with all the green grass. Have you considered expansion of your x-scaping and/or a water recovery system?

Morgan: Nothing formally planned. But we do live in a highland grass plain. That’s why the cattle industry flourishes here.(We grow) No exotics (grass).

Glover: I hear you’re a motorcycle riding enthusiast. What kind of bike do you have and what’s your favorite rides?

Morgan: I ride a BMW R1150 RT. My favorites rides in Texas are: River Road, Scenic Loop, Wild Rose Pass.

Glover: I understand the utility bills at Sul Ross run $90,000.00 a month. Is their any plans for alternative energy systems?

Morgan: I don’t know if $ 90,000 is right but I do know its high. As we speak we’re installing a solar energy system at the pool to heat the water. No other programs are planned other than conservation, meaning that every building we build is built to save energy.

Glover: Do you have a re-cycling program at Sul Ross?

Morgan: We recycle paper, cardboard. We had a student program re-cycling cans.

Glover: What is your philosophy on re-cycling?

Morgan: We need to do it. At a small institution, if it is not economical, then you are taking (funds) from some other place to do it. We have to do it at the expense of something else. But it’s the right thing to do. We live on a space ship and more and more we are understanding what that means.

Glover: Recently during the re-accreditation process with the Southern Association of Colleges, the theme of Sul Ross’s unique location was trumpeted.

Morgan: Accreditation basically means we are compliant with about 75 things that all institutions must do to serve our regions. We then must develop a plan to improve student learning. Our new Quality Enhancement Plan hopes to improve learning by using our great outdoor environment and emphasizing outdoor activity to improve student engagement and critical thinking.

Glover: What does it mean to be a small university in the middle of nowhere?

Morgan: We provide teacher training in rural west Texas. 60 per cent of our students take some type of teacher certification class. We provide teachers, administrators, counselors, principals, superintendents… We were founded as Sul Ross Normal College, a college to train teachers. Our first student, Janie Macou, graduated here and went on to teach at the Centennial School in Alpine for 35 years. Janie Macou typifies who we are and what we are. But we do lots of other things. We have an outstanding Agriculture and natural Resource Management, Biology and Geology programs as well as outstanding programs in the humanities, the arts and business administration.

Glover: Some in the field of education are concerned with the burgeoning ratio of administrators to faculty. I think Sul Ross has three administrators for every instructor. Doesn’t that create a lot of beaurocracy?

Morgan: Define an administrator? We have less than four hundred employees of which one hundred are faculty. The faculty would be upset if I took away their secretaries, custodians, grounds keepers, record keepers, etc. We have cut administration. Two years ago we had 5 V-P’s today we have 3.

Glover: How do you see the future of Sul Ross?

Morgan: There will be more distant learning and web-based classes. But these type of classes do not broaden the student’s perspective. A big place in education is the residential campus where students get their degrees and grow-up. On campus you learn a lot about people and much of that learning takes place outside the classroom: bull sessions, roommates, student organizations, etc.

Glover: When the time comes, what will be Vic Morgan’s legacy at Sul Ross?

Morgan: I don’t know if I’ll have to leave a legacy. Perhaps getting credit or blame for tearing down the old buildings. But we have enhanced the academic progress and rebuilt the campus. The next president will need to raise a lot of money. We’ve got a damn fine faculty, and an outstanding library. You know the oldest institutions in America are universities. That’s because they provide a pretty incredible product.