President Jerry Gilbert reassured students, faculty and community members Thursday at a reception at the Marshall University Mid-Ohio Valley Center that they are a significant part of the Marshall University community.

Gilbert said he hopes members of the MOVC will be reminded by his visit that they are just as important as members of Marshall’s main campus.

“I want to affirm value in their eyes to their campus, so they know that we value their education just like every other student’s education,” Gilbert said.

MOVC director, Homer Preece said Gilbert’s presence at the reception will help to shape a bond between the Huntington campus and the Point Pleasant campus.

“We want our students to feel that they are a part of Marshall, you know. We are Marshall,” Preece said. “We want him to have that connection with us.”

Freshman medical imaging major, Elisabeth Hendrick said she was glad to see how interested the president was in building that connection with her and other students by asking them about their experiences with MOVC programs.

“He’s building a foundation for the rest of his presidency. He gets that firsthand experience and we get that firsthand experience with him,” Hendrick said. “It’s pretty neat whenever somebody takes time out of their day to come down and visit with us, even though we’re not on campus.”

John Musgrave, the director of the Mason County Development Authority said the president’s visits will help to encourage students at the MOVC to continue pursuing their educations to take part in the national economy.

“Education is key,” Musgrave said. “If we’re not producing students and providing learning opportunities, we’re not competing in the future. So it’s important when he comes and talks about that education.”

Chairman of the advisory board, John Sang said it is also important that the president come to the MOVC to personally interact with the faculty and experience the facility.

“We have tremendous programs here. He just needs to be here and get a feel for what’s going on instead of somebody telling him, ‘Well, we’ve got this place in Point Pleasant and we’ve got one in South Charleston,’” Sang said. “You need to be there, because the people who are running these facilities are doing a great job.”

Gilbert said he looks forward to returning to the MOVC facility and interacting with the campus community at some point.

“The students here seem very interested and also very glad that we have this facility so they can live in their communities,” Gilbert said. “I think it’s really serving a great purpose to have this facility in this location at Point Pleasant.”

The next reception to welcome the president will take place 5 to 6 p.m. Feb. 22, at the South Charleston campus location.

Rebecca Turnbull can be contacted at [email protected].