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 Charles H. Polk President Mountain State University Dr. Charles H. Polk was born in Texas. He graduated from Stephen F. Austin University with both his bachelor's and master's degrees in sociology/psychology, then went on to earn a doctorate in adult education and college administration from North Carolina State University in 1970. He taught college-level sociology and psychology while pursuing his education, and was chosen executive dean of Florida Junior College in Jacksonville in 1970. Four years later, at the age of 31, Dr. Polk was named president of Daytona Beach Community College, becoming the youngest college president in the country at that time. During his 16-year tenure at Daytona Beach, Dr. Polk expanded the institution to include four new campuses, increasing enrollment from 17,000 to 40,000 students. He managed an annual budget that grew from $4.1 million to $45 million, and more than $85 million for campus development was raised while he was president. Looking to move into the realm of private higher education, Dr. Polk came to what was then Beckley College in 1990. Within his first year as president of the struggling junior college, he managed to pull the school from the brink of bankruptcy. Also within the first year of his arrival, he directed the transition from a two-year school to a bachelor's- degree-granting institution that was renamed The College of West Virginia. The next decade brought a number of highlights: the opening of the $5 million Robert C. Byrd Learning Resource Center in 1997, negotiation of a partnership with West Virginia University-the first comprehensive collaborative agreement between a private college and a public university in the state-in 1998, and the launch of the college's first master's degree programs in 1999. Another change of name and status went into effect in fall 2001, when the institution became Mountain State University. Today, MSU is the third largest graduate school in West Virginia, and serves more than 6,000 students annually from throughout the state, across the country, and around the world. President Polk is also an accomplished gospel singer who has recorded several CDs. He is married to the former Lisa Steele and is the father of two sons and a daughter. |
