 HBCU Dodgers Radio, welcome back. I'm your host, Jared Carter. We are continuing our coverage of historically black college communities and campuses reacting to, dealing with, looking to preserve lives in the era of the COVID-19 response. But business continues on many of our campuses and today was an excellent example of that. Harrisville State University, really friendly school to the program, announced a new president and he joins us this evening, Dr. Corey Bradford. Congratulations to you, brother. First, how does it feel to be named president of the institution? Well, good evening to you, Jared. And first, I wanna say that I am humbled and honored to have been selected the 20th president of Harrisville State University. You know, I have great admiration for what Harrisville has achieved over the past 163 years. I am extremely excited to leave the next chapter in the university's trajectory. So you're a St. Louis guy, right? I am, I am from St. Louis. So that's hometown for me. So St. Louis is a place that I grew up. Matter of fact, I grew up around the campus. So I am fully aware of St. Louis's strengths and challenges and rightly proud of Harrisville's tradition of service and leadership in the region. So what is it like, that kind of homecoming? Is it something you were looking for? Is it just an opportunity that presented itself or how does that kind of enhance your experience becoming a president at that institution? Well, you know, you know, first of all, I just wanna say I have been humbled by the reaction of my colleagues, faculty, students, corporate partners, family and friends about the news of my presidency. My phone and emails have been going nonstop since the news broke. So people are extremely happy for me and my family and for Harrisville and St. Louis. It's a dream to be able to go back home and to be able to serve your community and help lead positive change. So you actually made the digest look good because last summer you were one of eight folks that were on our list of future or HBCU presidents of the future. So you're the first one off that list to get a school but this is stemming from a lot of the work that you did at Preview A&M as a vice president. Can you talk about some of the successes that you had and what was the key to your work in business development and a lot of external relations of sorts? What made it possible for you there to position Prairie View so favorably in that area? Well, you know, I truly have appreciated my time at Prairie View. We were able to achieve many big things to make the university better. For example, we built a new $63 million football stadium, probably the best among HBCUs. We grew revenues over 50% during my tenure there. We built up record reserves and endowment balances. We added new outstanding faculty and new academic programs. I was able to help the university build over $350 million in capital improvements on that campus. All of that had led up to record enrollments at Prairie View. As you know, Prairie View is one of the largest HBCUs in the country. The current demand there is extremely high. This year alone, Prairie View has admitted over 6,000 freshmen for the coming fall. The university had to deny close to 2,000 students who wanted to attend. And trust me, this was not the case prior to my arrival. So things have definitely changed for the better at Prairie View. So what do you think are the strongest, I don't want to say juxtapositions, but I guess similarities between Harris Stowe, which is a metropolitan HBCU, and in Prairie View, which is more in the suburbs, even rural, some people would tell you, there's a difference between one in the ag school, another one being urban focused and it's degrees and it's programs. What are some of the similarities that made you feel comfortable with saying, you know, what I've done here in Texas, we'll translate over to you, it's this way. Yeah, well, I truly believe that I will be able to transfer many of the successful things that were done at Prairie View to Harris Stowe and help them build upon the successful things that they have achieved over the last five years under Dr. Wormat. I see myself as a builder, I take what we are doing, make things better, move it to the next level. So I want to help strengthen Harris Stowe with more great students, more outstanding faculty, many new facilities that accommodate the growth and increasing their brand image and program offering. One of the things that is gonna be unique about the start of your tenure is that most folks get a chance to come see the campus, get to know a lot of their faculty, the executive team, they're there, they're boots on the ground. That, there's obstacles to that now because of the current pandemic response. What are the ways that you think you're gonna have an opportunity to interface with a lot of your people and to learn some of the culture of the institution, even though you can't be hands-on right away? Yeah, yeah, that's gonna be somewhat of a challenge, you know, getting started in a pandemic situation. And so we're using a lot of the social media platform, Zoom, to make connections, you know, phone calls. And so, you know, the people at Harris Stowe have been so supportive doing this whole process and understanding. You can just imagine how difficult it is trying to find housing right now in this current environment, but that's the challenge that me and my wife is facing. And so, we'll be in St. Louis by May 1st, so. So we're excited about that. What is the thing that you're looking most forward to as you learn about the institution? You've grown up around it, so you kind of know a lot of its spirit and what it means to that city. What is it about the institution that you're most looking forward to putting your hands on and saying, here's where we go with the next chapter of this? Yeah, well, our ambition has still achieved being more prominent place among the nation's best institutions, through innovation and education, its STEM programs, student success from a student-centered framework, and heavy community engagement. Now this won't be easy, but nothing worth achieving is easy. So I feel like I'm up for the challenge to make the real difference in people's lives. And so this is the most exciting thing to me about this opportunity at Harris Stowe, because success is extremely possible there for me as well as for the institution. Harris Stowe is ready, in my opinion, to be on the national stage and to show people all the great things that they're doing from a small liberal arts public institution. And then just to round it out, man, and again, we appreciate your time. The unique part of this time is that there's a lot of uncertainty about where students are going to be in the fall, will they have the resources to return to school? Well, what will out of state recruitment and things look like? Do you think that based on your experience in raising enrollment and building profile, that it's going to be almost a start from scratch gig in the sense that this is something we've never seen before? So you're going to have to do things that we've never done before to try to, you know, be in enrollment, keep it stable, allay concerns among community members. Do you think it's just something of extending what's working or do you think, do you foresee that you may have to do something new because of the time that we're in? Yeah, I think we're going to have to look at how we deliver education a little bit differently. I think a lot of universities are going to explore more hybrid types of models, where you take some classes face to face, but then you also take some online. Okay, so I think that's going to be a big change for us in higher education. But, you know, my vision includes expanding educational access for more students in the region. I want to see more people attain a college education, but I do recognize the fact that not all citizens need to go to college, because we all know that most of the high paying new jobs in the future will require some college education. And I truly believe that Harris Stow is well positioned to address this need by offering a high quality education at an affordable price. Harris Stow is the most affordable institution in the state of Missouri for a four year institution.