In a short meeting Tuesday afternoon, the Board of Regents officially appointed Suzanne Shipley as the 11th university president. Student Regent Jesse Brown said the board also advanced Shipley’s start date to Aug. 8 this year.

“I’m excited,” Brown said after the meeting. “I know she’s going to do a fantastic job. The Shepherd University board does not want to let her go, so that means we’re definitely doing something right.”

After a short open meeting to approve the naming of a pavilion at the Wichita Falls Museum of Art at MSU, the board met in a closed executive session to vote on hiring Shipley and discuss her contract.

“They’ll just talk about the terms of the contract, when she would start and that type of thing. I don’t think a contract has been ironed out, so they’ll probably authorize to officially name her as president,” said Debbie Barrow, director of board and government relations. “My hope is that they will, within this timeframe between now and May, that they’ll be able to iron out the details of the contract. I don’t think it’s that we’re far off, it’s just that you have to go through her and then her people. You don’t rush these sorts of things.”

The board named Shipley the sole finalist for the presidency March 9 to abide by a state law requiring a 21-day period before finalizing the appointment.

“If there was a problem, if anyone had something they wanted the university or board to hear about, you had those 21 days to do your due diligence, but I’m confident that we had already done our due diligence,” Barrow said.

Shipley was in a board meeting of her own at Shepherd University during the executive session, but she issued a statement in a press release thanking the board and the community for their support.

“I so appreciate the confidence expressed in my leadership by the Midwestern State Board of Regents, the faculty, staff and students of Midwestern State University, and the Wichita Falls community. These are energizing times for all of us; we will use that creative energy to explore new pathways and chart new territory together,” Shipley said in the release.

Born in Lubbock, Shipley will return close to home when she starts the job in August, and Brown said her familiarity to the area was another reason the board chose her.

“She understands the history. She knows the area, she understands the prospective. That was a huge issue that we really liked,” Brown said. “She’s going to be fantastic fitting into the community. It just cuts down on the transition time if she’s from Texas. It’s been a few years, but it doesn’t leave you.”

Brown also said of the three candidates, Shipley struck him as the best president for students.

“I could tell that she genuinely cared about the student issues here. She didn’t understand them completely, but I can understand that,” Brown said. “She hasn’t been around enough.”

Brown said the Shipley won him over when she offered to invite select student groups to her house for dinner to discuss the needs of the student.

“She has already voiced to me that when she does get here and finally gets settled in, she’s going to bring SGA, athletics and some other main groups to specifically have dinner with her and figure out what needs to be fixed,” Brown said. “That is what sold me, that she’s willing to do that and get to know what the problems are and fix them.”