Gary Miller, one of three candidates for the University’s next president, is familiar with an everyday college experience.

Miller, provost at Wichita State University, is a former member of the student government, lacrosse team and a fraternity at the College of William & Mary.

He hopes to engage the student body by bringing his experiences to the University this fall.

“My undergraduate education at William & Mary was a fully awakening experience,” he said. “I immersed myself into that culture and was transformed.”

An undergraduate education at the University should be equally transforming, Miller said.

“My vision for Bowling Green State University is pretty simple,” he said. “It’s that this university is an unquestioned leader in higher education, with a baccalaureate experience second to none — and that it’s viewed that way throughout the state, the nation and the world.”

Miller spoke to a crowd of more than 100 in the Union theater Wednesday afternoon. Following a 15-minute presentation, he answered questions from students, faculty and staff for nearly an hour.

Miller has been a leader at several universities nationwide, including the University of the Pacific and the University of Mississippi. He has been provost of Wichita, a Kansas university with nearly 15,000 students, since 2006.

Higher education is transforming, Miller said, into a period characterized by serious budget issues and declining public perception.

“But BGSU has a deep history of excellence in higher education and, in my view, will continue to build models for higher education in this difficult time,” he said. “There are so many initiatives here — so much optimism and desire to look to the future — that this is an institution that clearly will navigate this difficult time very successfully.”

Recognizing the Information Age at hand is crucial to prepare students for the 21st century, he said.

“It’s changing the way we communicate and interact with one another,” Miller said. “Our challenge is to create an environment at BGSU to integrate valued traditions inside this enormous information economy to prepare students to be citizens in this country and around the world.”

Miller also addressed the importance of engaging the local community for both students and the city of Bowling Green.

“By providing learning environments for students outside of the classroom, we take basic research and translate it into social good,” he said. “The community becomes our laboratory and will give students the networking they will need to survive and thrive.”

Freshman Maddi Montavon attended the forum with the Presidential Honors Program and said she enjoyed Miller’s enthusiastic presentation.

“I like how he talked about engagement, because we talk about it in class,” she said. “Engaging students is very important at a University. For me, engaging is a big thing, because it’s pointless to be here if I don’t have something to keep me here.”

William Primrose, presidential search committee chair, said the three presidential candidate forums will help the committee make a well-educated decision for the University’s next president.

“We have three interesting, qualified candidates,” he said. “The University has done a great job interviewing them, and I’m anxious to get feedback and see where we go from here.”

The committee will select a new president by spring semester’s end via a public vote, Primrose said.

President Carol Cartwright will step down June 30.

Prior to the vote, the committee will review evaluation forms submitted by forum attendees. Then, it will perform background checks and communicate with the candidates’ external references.

“There’s no reason we can’t get this done by then,” Primrose said. “The quicker the better.”

Recordings of the forums and biographies of the candidates are available on the presidential search page of the University’s website.