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Ben Burnett has spent most of his adult as a teacher or administrator in south Mississippi. Starting Tuesday, Burnett will take over as William Carey University president.
“We are elated to be making this announcement,” Odean Busby, chairman of the WCU Presidential Search Committee said in June. “After a seven-month search and interview process, we are very pleased to find our new president right here on campus.”
Burnett, 58, joined the William Carey faculty full-time in 2014 when he was named dean of the School of Education. He had been an adjunct professor before then, including during his tenure as superintendent of Lamar County School District.
William Carey University:Retiring president Tommy King accomplished much, but he didn’t do it alone
He was promoted to executive vice president in 2020 and worked closely with retired president Tommy King before he was named the school’s 10th president. Inauguration ceremonies for Burnett will be held in the fall.
Burnett said King left the university much better than he found it, having steered the school through natural disasters and a global pandemic in addition to expanding the educational offerings and increasing enrollment.
“We’re in a great place,” Burnett said.
Burnett plans to build on Carey’s successes under King’s leadership to keep the forward momentum going.
“The best leadership advice I can glean from the different people I think are very credible is that organizations that are at the top of their game, the top of their success, is the time they’ve got to be more creative and try different things,” Burnett said.
Some of the university’s recent accolades center around health care, including the opening of a medical school and this year doubling its enrollment; opening the pharmacy school at its Tradition campus; a physical therapy program; and an expanded nursing program that includes a Ph.D. in nursing.
“The nursing shortage right now is more critical than the teacher shortage,” Burnett said.
Other major accomplishments in education include starting an alternate route program to help potential teachers get certified amidst a teacher shortage crisis.
“We didn’t just maintain, we had an increase of enrollment of 700 students over the last five or six years,” Burnett said. “We will certainly not abandon those huge programs for us that have made an impact, not just for the university but for the state of Mississippi.
“We have room for growth in those programs. There’s still a nursing shortage. There’s still a teaching shortage. We still need doctors in rural areas in the state of Mississippi.
“Although we made a huge impact in all of those areas, there’s still room for growth.”
Burnett said over time the university will expand some programs, add others as needed, but other areas need his focus, too.
“We can take what’s going on at Carey and tell our story more,” Burnett said. “We need to tell our story in our own state, starting here locally. I want people across the nation to recognize and know more about what goes on at William Carey University, which also opens the door for increased enrollment.”
Mississippi’s population is declining as is the number of high school graduates across the country, Burnett said.
“If we don’t do more to reach outside the borders of our own state and to recruit and embrace people from across the country, we’re not going to sustain what we are doing now,” he said.
Burnett also plans to connect more with alumni and draw them into supporting the university’s programs and recruitment efforts. He is working on a strategic plan to expand alumni engagement.
“We’re not just going to be asking for money,” he said. “The best recruiters we can possibly have are people who graduated from William Carey.”
One other area Burnett wants to focus on is visiting all the Baptist churches in Mississippi one Sunday at a time. He said the Mississippi Baptist Convention gives financial support to the three Baptist colleges in the state: Carey, Mississippi College in Clinton, and Blue Mountain College in northeast Mississippi.
“We’re going to be visiting Baptist churches every Sunday for the sole purpose of thanking them for their support and letting them know what’s going on at William Carey,” Burnett said.
That may take some time though since there are roughly 2,300 Baptist churches in the state, he said.
“We’ve got to lay the groundwork for the future by going out and telling our story now,” Burnett said.
Burnett said he plans to remain a Carey faculty member, but isn’t sure yet how his teaching duties will dovetail with his new role as president.
“I’ve been a teacher for 36 years and I don’t plan on changing that part of my professional landscape,” Burnett said.
Do you have a story to share? Contact Lici Beveridge at lbeveridge@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @licibev or Facebook at facebook.com/licibeveridge.
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