Storm Lake Times Pilot

BVU Inaugurates Lenzmeier as 19th President



BVU President Brian Lenzmeier shares an embrace with upcoming commencement speaker Adrienne Haynes, a Kansas City attorney and BVU alumna.

Buena Vista University inaugurated President Brian Lenzmeier as its 19th president on Friday to a crowd of around 75 and Gov. Kim Reynolds, who praised the board of trustees for selecting the former virologist and longtime faculty member.

Reynolds opened the two-hour ceremony at Schaller Chapel describing the university as a “rural hub of innovation and entrepreneurship” and Lenzmeier as “a trusted voice not only in his academic specialty, but about the issues that matter to rural communities all over the State of Iowa.” Lenzmeier serves on the governor’s Empower Rural Iowa Task Force, to which he’s lent “creative energy.”

“In Dr. Lenzmeier, BVU couldn’t have selected a better candidate to guide it down this unique path,” said Reynolds after the rural hub distinction. “… He knows the university inside and out.”

Lenzmeier used his 20-minute inaugural speech as an opportunity to challenge the campus community to transform itself. He highlighted President Keith Briscoe establishing the university’s first center in Fort Dodge in partnership with Iowa Central Community College 46 years ago, a precursor to its 14 satellite locations that exist today. He also noted a dramatic expansion of athletic facilities and the Estelle Siebens Science Center under former President Fred Moore and the beginning of an ag school under Josh Merchant, all of which served the “evolving” needs of its student body.

Lenzmeier told The Storm Lake Times in August the university must aggressively grow its enrollment to keep pace with its current staffing level. Its endowment must also grow, he said, or else the university must undergo another restructuring by 2030.

“We are celebrating here today because BVU evolved 21 and 46 years ago,” said Lenzmeier, referencing the ICCC partnership and an initiative under Moore that granted every student a laptop.

“I encourage you all to think about playing an active role in transforming out institution,” he said.

 

Lakeside resident Ofelia Valdez-Rumbo poses for a photo with newly-inaugurated President Brian Lenzmeier.

 

Lenzmeier acknowledged after the event the crowd size was significantly smaller than what it was for Merchant’s inauguration in 2018. Merchant addressed a packed Siebens Fieldhouse on a Friday in May, an era before the coronavirus pandemic.

Lenzmeier opened his speech thanking the Storm Lake community for its support of the inauguration and the faculty, who’ve demonstrated an “unparalleled resilience” amid the pandemic and the turbulent nature of higher education.

A virologist by training, Lenzmeier acknowledged the university’s future transformation will be like that of the research process: scientists usually fail more often than they succeed, he said.

“Continued improvement is going to be hard, but it is essential to our success,” he ended. “… We’re gonna build out continuous improvement and innovation plans for every program, team, service and office at BVU. We’re gonna work together to build a strategic planning process not every five years but every year so we remain at the forefront. We’re gonna tap everyone in this room. Your immense talent is needed.”

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