By: Lani Hansen, Senior Reporter
OKMULGEE, Oklahoma– The College of the Muscogee Nation Board of Regents announced Dr. Monte Randall as the new President. He is the college’s fifth President.
Dr. Randall is Muscogee (Creek) and resides in Glenpool, OK, with his wife Lauren and three children. He is from Oklahoma and a veteran of the United States Navy.
He is a graduate of Haskell Indian Nations University with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. Then he went to the University of Oklahoma receiving his master’s degree in Native American Studies. Dr. Randall then went to Oral Roberts University receiving his doctorate in educational leadership.
Dr. Randall was selected to serve as the President of CMN after the passing of Dr. Robert Bible. He started in office on March 8, 2021.
“It was a tough situation to come in after the loss of President Bible,” Dr. Randall said. “He was a great leader and a mentor to me, a friend. For me, this was a calling to apply and after I was selected it was emotional. I knew I had to come in and take over in a tough situation.”
Knowing Dr. Bible for ten years, Dr. Randall had felt prepared for this new role as President. He felt like he knew Dr. Bible’s guidance and vision was for the college. Dr. Randall has his own vision too for the college as he prepared for the next step.
As the newly selected college President, Dr. Randall focuses on building up the college. Some of his goals that are currently happening on campus are a new Natural Resources building which is under construction and a distant-learning Mvskoke language certificate program.
“Those are some of our major projects right now, and my goal is to continue to carry those out,” Dr. Randall said. “We should be in our Natural Resources building in the next month, and our distant-learning Mvskoke language program by the fall at least but that is up to the higher-learning commission.”
Other goals he has for the college is to increase student enrollment, increase classes and expanding the bachelor degree programs. Dr. Randall said the expansion of the bachelor degree programs was a goal of the late President Dr. Bible, and he plans to continue to work towards that goal.
Dr. Randall said Dr. Bible’s influences are still seen at the college, and that is reassuring to him. As far as Dr. Bible, Dr. Randall feels like he doesn’t have to keep that alive knowing the legacy of the late Dr. Bible is still present.
Dr. Randall wanted to thank the Board of Regents and selection committee for offering him this opportunity.
“I want to thank everyone for their support, Chief Hill and National Council for all of their support for the college,” Dr. Randall added. “I also wanted to send out my heart felt condolescences to the Bible family, to let them know President Bible will not be forgotten here.”
