Raymond M. Burse was named the 14th president of Kentucky State University in Frankfort. Burse served as president of Kentucky State from 1982 to 1989. Burse then was an executive at General Electric, serving as vice president and general counsel. He retired from GE in 2012 after 17 years at the firm.
Burse was named interim president of Kentucky State this past June. He was scheduled to serve as interim president for a year but the board of regents voted unanimously to give him a three-year contract.
“The job to be done is not a 12-month job,” President Burse said. “It requires a longer period of service. I’m pleased to be in that position again to serve Kentucky State University.”
Burse received national headlines this summer for taking a salary cut so that low-level university employees would have their wages raised to an hourly rate of $10.25.
Burse is a graduate of Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, where he double majored in chemistry and mathematics. He studied organic chemistry at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar and later graduated from Harvard Law School.
