Spartans Athletic Director Bill Beekman welcomes Vennie Gore to MSU Today. Vennie is Senior Vice President for Auxiliary Enterprises at MSU.
“I kind of say I do stuff, Bill,” Gore says. “We do all the on-campus living in the residence halls and apartments. On a normal year, there are roughly about 16,000 to 17,000 students and student families living across campus. We are one of the largest single campus residential systems in the country. We also do all the culinary food service on campus. In a normal year, we serve between Sunday through Thursday about 50,000 meals a day. And then we run a hotel, we have two golf courses, the tennis facility, and the MSU Union. We’ve helped with the new research building in Grand Rapids. And most recently, I’m the interim vice president for Student Affairs and Services. So I kind of do a little bit of stuff. That’s what I like to call it. My daughter jokes that I’m like the mayor of MSU.”
Gore talks about growing up in a military family and about how his physical education degree continues to impact how he performs his ‘mayoral’ duties.
“A lot of coaching theory is about how to make teams grow and develop over a period of time. And so I'm able to translate that piece into leadership and how to coach a team and think about what your game plans are because you learn those lessons in coaching theory. And then you get a chance to practice it when you're doing it. And I think one of the things that you learn is how to think both tactically and strategically.”
Gore talks about the $34 million in food he buys for MSU each year and about his role co-chairing President Stanley’s strategic planning process that’s envisioning MSU’s future.
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