UPIKE President visits journalism class
0Written By Mounia Sami and Miranda Davis
On Wednesday, March 2, the president of the University of Pikeville, Dr. Burton J. Webb, visited the introduction to journalism class taught by Chandra Massner to talk to the students and get to know them better as they learned more about him. The students asked many interesting questions concerning his background, his position, and the future of the university.
Webb took office as the University of Pikeville President on Jan. 1. His path to Pikeville was unique. He grew up in Michigan with a high school graduating class of 11 students. From there, he attended Olivet College, a small, private college in Michigan. Webb didn’t know he would become a college president one day. As an undergraduate, he bounced around majors, spending time in nursing and middle grades education before settling down and earning his degree in zoology with a minor in chemistry.
With degree in hand, he hit the road as the lead singer with a rock and roll band before going to graduate school. His band, Free Spirit, played contemporary Christian music. After a year and a half of rock and roll, he returned to school to earn his master’s degree in biology, and a Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology.
From there, Webb worked four years at a children’s hospital conducting cancer research. Then, he moved to academia with positions at Indiana Wesleyan University and Northwest Nazarene University.
He is proud of his family, including his wife, Kay, and his two children, Kelsea and Mason.
Webb described some of the improvements he wants to make at UPIKE, including to the infrastructure and the quality of the school’s facilities. Right now, he sees a definite need for a student recreation center although he said his priorities could change as he gathers more information from others on campus.
While the students were interested in the state of campus housing, Webb explained the difficulty private colleges face with “deferred maintenance” because they do not “get enough revenue to maintain the physical facilities in the way they should.” He said he will work to improve the situation here over time.
Currently, he is spending time getting to know UPIKE faculty, staff, and students, so he can better tell the college’s story when making appeals to foundations, corporations, and individual donors.
“The best part of my job is talking to people about the potential of college students. I especially like to tell stories,” Webb said.