The Board of Regents has voted to extend the contract of President Dr. Jesse Rogers another three years.

The contract, which will come up for renewal again in 2015, was extended by the Board in a closed session at its February meeting.

Too many important things are happening at the university for him to leave, Rogers said in an interview with The Wichitan. Among them are a Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) visit, dean searches, a new Texas Legislative session and a new five-year master plan for the university.

“This is just not a good time to be on a presidential search,” he said.

SACS is scheduled to visit the university this year. During the visit, representatives from the accrediting body critique the way MSU is run.

This will be the fifth time Rogers has seen them come to MSU. The president said the team who initiates the visit works “through the president.”

“I need to see that process through to help everyone,” said Rogers.

And there’s another problem: the new Texas Legislative season starts in January, Rogers said. University presidents are required by law to speak before several legislative bodies, including house appropriations and the legislative budget board.

“I’ve had extensive experience of doing that and knowing how to prepare testimony,” he said.

Testifying in January is crucial to the success of the university, he said.

“You definitely want them to know what the university needs, what we’ve been doing well, that kind of thing.”

Currently, the university is searching for two deans and possibly a new provost. Rogers’ leaving now would just create one more problem, he said.

Also, Rogers and other administrators have been in the process of creating a five-year master plan for the university. They pitched it to the MSU Board of Regents in mid-February.

Rogers said he’s now invested in the plan he helped to guide.

“We really need to do several of those projects. I’ve made commitments to donors that I’d be here long enough to see that at least they got started. They were irreversible. I want to make good on those commitments.”

But administrators may not have gotten the response from the Board they expected when the plan was laid before them – though members approved the “concept” of the plan, they quibbled over most parts of it.

“The Board knows we need to do these things. And I need to keep reminding everyone, faculty, students and Board, we’re doing this for the growth of the university.”

That’s precisely why he needs to stay another five years.

Rogers was vice president of academic affairs in 1977 when he applied for the position of president. Though he was one of three finalists for the position, Dr. Henry Moon won the job.

“I was at a point in my career where I would have held any position to help the university.”

Rogers served as interim president in 1980. He went back to serving in the vice president capacity after Dr. Louis Rodriguez was hired in 1981.

In 2001, Rogers finally got his chance to serve as president of MSU.

He said some of his biggest achievements during his tenure as president are completing the Dillard College of Business Administration and gaining COPLAC accreditation.

“We have built and we own one of the finest buildings on campus,” Rogers said about the Dillard building.

He’s also proud that the college of business is accredited by AACSBI.

“If you’re not accredited you can give degrees, but for business colleges that is the special accrediting body.”

COPLAC accreditation is also a big deal, he said.

“I’m very proud of us joining COPLAC. I love the idea of a public liberal arts college because of what it stands for. It identifies what we are.”

He said another of the university’s biggest achievements is starting a mechanical engineering program.

“That was done almost exclusively with private money. We couldn’t have pulled our resources out of operating funds.”

He said people’s views of engineering have changed dramatically in the past few decades.

“Engineers here get a broad, liberal education as well as good engineering training. We have educated people as well as technical people who are now in a position to do social good.”

MSU has raised admissions standards twice in Rogers’ tenure.

“It takes a lot of courage to do that as a university.”