33 new faculty join campus from MWSU Campus Watch on Vimeo.

This semester a near-record number of new students began their college careers. However, there is another group of new Mustangs on campus that you might not have noticed.

There are 33 new faculty members across all six of the university’s colleges this semester partially because of the voluntary separation program administrators initiated last year as a means of lowering salaries and cutting the budget.

Melissa Nivens, a “freshmen” English instructor and former high school teacher of 13 years said, the choice to teach here was a practical one.

“Why MSU? There was a full-time position at a four-year university close to home. I didn’t have to move or anything to come here. I could make that drive, an hour four days a week. Certainly, it was the opportunity to get to be in higher-ed close to home,” Nivens said.

Another new member faculty, Scott Meddaugh, Bolin Distinguished Professor of Petroleum Geology spent the last 32 years with Chevron Oil Company. Traveling to every continent but Antarctica — which he said he still hopes to reach someday and consulting on projects at some of the world’s largest oil reserves, for Meddaugh moving into the next stage of his professional career is something he had thought about for sometime and MSU was simply the best fit.

He said MSU in particular was attractive because he wanted to move to a university environment to devote time to teaching.

“That had to be the emphasis,” Meddaugh said. “MSU fit the bill perfectly in terms of its focus on teaching. There are opportunities with good support for research. But the emphasis on students and preparing students for either a career or graduate school, that was the attraction,” Meddaugh said.

Perhaps most noticeable on the list of additions are the 13 new faculty members in the college of Health Sciences and Human Services, with majority in the Radiological Science Department.

DebraWynne and Christopher Wertz, are two of the new assistant professors in the radiology department and both graduates of MSU, and both said they jumped at the chance be  faculty.

Wertz said, “I got my master’s degree and I knew I wanted to teach. MSU provided me with that opportunity. But the biggest draw was the faculty and staff here working with them. I enjoyed the master’s program so much I knew this is a place for me even if I had to come from Idaho.”

Wynne said her co-workers have made it easier to make the adjustment from working in a hospital to working in higher education.

“It’s been a lot of fun. It’s a lot different for me because I have never been a teacher before. I was in the hospital, in a clinical environment, so it’s something new. Everybody has been really helpful, I ask lots and lots of questions but they (staff) is always eager to help.”

For a complete list of the new faculty, CLICK HERE.