Mountain State University’s president, Dr. Charles Polk, said following a two-year self-study process of the university he realized some things needed to be done differently to keep moving toward an even brighter future.

“We wanted to share with the community our new organizational structure and give the community the opportunity to know what we are doing and why we are doing it,” Polk said in an interview with The Register-Herald.

Polk says organizational changes are made for a variety of reasons, but these chang-es were made to ensure the university’s continuing success.

“We wanted to give the institution more focus so that our core business is able to revolve singularly around fewer people than more people,” he explained. “We have also just gone through our 10-year evaluation by our central accrediting body.”

Polk says he felt it was just the proper time to make some organizational changes.

“We want the community to know who are in primary leadership roles and what they will be doing,” he said.

The changes include Roslyn Artis being named executive vice president of MSU’s Beckley campus.

“Roslyn Artis is ideally suited for this position and will become the face of the Beckley campus,” Polk said.

Polk said Artis would oversee the traditional academic arena of the Beckley campus and will continue to seek opportunities for fundraising.

“She will champion the cause of university advancement,” he said.

With Artis taking the reins of the traditional academic programs on the Beckley campus, Jim Silosky has been named the executive vice president of distance education.

“Jim will continue to build our distance education and cohort offerings, including our online programs, as he has done over the past few years,” Polk said.

Polk said distance education and learning is the biggest opportunity for growth at MSU.

“Jim will also oversee our branch campuses, with the exception of Martinsburg,” Polk added.

Layne Diehl has been named executive vice president of the Martinsburg campus.

“Layne will continue to work toward making Martinsburg a comprehensive campus by building academic programs and making the necessary connections within the Martinsburg area to make this vision a reality,” Polk said. “We want to make the Martinsburg campus more like the Beckley campus, and now Layne will focus on developing it. Martinsburg offers MSU’s greatest potential because it is located in an undeserved market.”

Cindy Alexander will move into a different role within the university as executive vice president of administration.

“Cindy will facilitate the growth of the university by managing day-to-day operations to ensure the goals we set for ourselves are attainable,” Polk said.

Kelli Mays has been named the senior vice president and special assistant to the president.

“She will continue to oversee institutional planning and improvement, and will assume responsibility for the operations of the president’s office,” Polk said.

Polk says the reorganization reduces the number of leadership roles reporting to him from nine to five.

“I think we picked five people who are really strong and focused,” he added. “As we move ahead, I think everyone will see the benefit of having done this reorganization.”

— E-mail: fpace@register-herald.com