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New Nicholls State University President Dr. Bruce Murphy has been around education for a large chunk of his adult life.
But even with the vast experience at his disposal, Murphy said he still gets Goosebumps and “first-day jitters” when preparing for a new school year.
That nervous energy of excitement for what’s to come is what’s inspiring Murphy and the rest of his staff as Nicholls heads toward its 2014-15 academic year – the first such year for Murphy as president of the Thibodaux-based four-year university.
“Absolutely you still get that nervous energy before a school year – especially when it’s your first go-round,” Murphy said on Monday morning from his office. “We got through the spring OK, but this is the fall semester now, and those are always different. In this job, we look at the one-year cycle, and until you’ve been through the whole thing, you don’t really have that whole rhythm down. So I’m a little bit anxiously nervous about what’s to come, but I think that’s probably a good thing.”
For Murphy, the challenges that await are plentiful, mostly surrounding budgetary concerns.
But the new president seems more than capable of navigating through them in an effective way that will allow Nicholls to continue to grow.
Prior to accepting the position in Thibodaux, Dr. Murphy was the Vice President for Academic Affairs at Air University in Alabama – a position he held for eight years. During that time, Murphy was elected to serve on the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools’ Commission on Colleges, which is the regional accrediting body for institutes of higher education. He currently serves on that commission’s appeals committee, according to Nicholls’ website.
Before his time at Air, Murphy was a founding dean at the School of Business at Point Park University in Pittsburgh, as well as a founding director of the graduate program in organizational leadership and chair of the Walker School of Business at Mercyhurst College in Pennsylvania.
In his earliest days in education, Murphy was a professor of military science at Vanderbilt and an assistant professor at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. That military background is deeply rooted in Murphy, who is a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Army, having served in Germany, Panama and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.
But at Nicholls, the battle Murphy and his associates will continually face will deal with budget constraints and a lack of funding for programs and other things within the university.
Murphy said he has a very clear plan to utilize all of his resources effectively at Nicholls. Instead of belly-aching and lamenting about what is or isn’t available, the new President said he wants to be proactive and make the most of the resources that the University does have – something that outgoing President Dr. Stephen T. Hulbert did a nice job doing during his 10-year tenure at Nicholls.
Hulbert retired from the post on Aug. 1, 2013. He has since become the Interim President at St. Joseph’s College in Indiana.
“I think first of all, the first thing you need to do is realize that you’re not alone,” Murphy said. “We can’t be in the mode of woe is me, because this is just the nature of higher education nowadays. Generally speaking, there’s just a lot less public funding going to higher education than in times past. We’ve got to kind of understand that.
“But with that being said, we need to identify, articulate and make sure that we are properly using all that we get and that we use it wisely.”
One way that Nicholls aims to do that is through understanding its strengths as a provider of the workforce throughout the Tri-parish area.
Murphy rattled off statistics that mark Nicholls as a leader in nursing, teaching and oilfield jobs throughout the area.
He said that because the university is so proficient in providing area employers with qualified employees, Nicholls must make sure it stays on top of the needs in our local workforce at all times, developing a strong relationship with the companies in the area that cherry-pick Nicholls’ graduates.
“We’ve got to make sure that we’re meeting the needs, primarily, No. 1, for our students, but we also in turn need to meet the needs of the region and the workforce that we’re supplying,” Murphy said. “We’re currently doing a great job of that, but I think it’s very important that we continue to do so, because we need to be responsive to those changing needs that may arise within our community’s business infrastructure.”
But ultimately, until the school year gets revved up into high gear, Murphy said he doesn’t know exactly how things might go.
But one thing is for sure – he and his wife, retired U.S. Army Col. Jeanne Picariello Murphy are loving Thibodaux – the family’s new home.
“We love it,” Murphy said. “It’s been a great experience for us. We have really gotten into the whole culture and the people and everything like that. We went to our first Tarpon Rodeo last week, and it’s neat because every time we do something new, it’s our first time doing it. It’s been great. We’ve enjoyed getting to know the people, the food and the culture and all of the terrific things that are special about living down here.”
Nicholls President Dr. Bruce Murphy celebrates his birthday at a University-led celebration held earlier this year.
