For Alabama State University president William H. Harris, coming to Selma is more than a part on an annual tour, but it has become a way for him to track the progress he and his administration have had at the university.

Saturday’s visit to Selma marked the beginning of Harris and ASU’s third annual President’s Tour, a trip through portions of Alabama spreading the name and the message of Alabama State University.

“The purpose of the trip really boils down to the whole concept of branding,” Harris said. “We are trying to get folks to understand and see the brand of ASU is more than just a small place in Montgomery, but really a major regional university.”

It was just three years ago that Harris, who had then recently once again taken over as president of the university, announced big plans and pending construction work for the Montgomery-based university. Harris said Saturday, the university is now just months away from that massive capital project coming to an end.

“In seven or eight months, the last crane will drive off the campus,” Harris said with a smile. “If I could drive it off myself, I would. But, by the end of this year, we will have invested nearly a quarter of a billion dollars on our Montgomery campus.”

The most well known part of that project will be the completion of the on-campus football stadium, scheduled to be completed in time to host the annual Turkey Day Classic; a game pitting Alabama State and Tuskegee University.

“We won’t know what it is like until we get there that day,” Harris said of the stadium. “But all of our designs, construction and review has been based on having that game played in that stadium on Nov. 22.”

But, the stadium remains just a part of the overall construction project.

“Since that time (three years ago) we’ve opened up a new life sciences building, new building for the College of Education named for Ralph Abernathy, who is the most renowned alumni we have I would expect. We have opened a new football complex, which is a practice facility and office space for our major football programs,” Harris said. “In addition to that, we have opened a new baseball facility and a new softball facility. In the fall we opened two new residence halls and on April 25, we will begin occupying a new student services building, and a whole new library has been opened.”

For Harris though, touting the improvements and growth of Alabama State is just part of the annual tour, which includes such stops as Gadsden, Mobile and Atlanta. Harris said it is a chance to hear from potential students, residents and alums about what they want to see from Alabama State.

“We have heard that a lot in making sure that we have good communication. That is something we have been emphasizing since we began this tour three years ago. Just the matter of making sure that phones are answered and people who write to us get a good, immediate response. We’ve been trying to get folks to understand, if someone has an inquiry — they might not like the answer — but they are going to get one,” Harris said. “We also get feedback about new programmatic possibilities. People are very excited about the new programs we’ve developed in forensic science for example; mainly because we heard that people said they were interested in that kind of stuff.”

As the construction work comes to an end, Harris said it is now time to place more focus on consolidating the gains the university has made and further developing the curriculum and programs.

“There is going to be a new normal. We believe the investment in result in a considerable change both in the number and the general quality of students at the university,” Harris said. “We have put in the facilities now, so we now have to be emphasizing from this point forward the development and the concentration on the overall quality of our programs. We need to be doing an analysis of the programs that we have and the programs that we ought to have.”

With potential students, current students and alums stopping by the St. James Hotel Saturday, Harris said this tour and its marketing component are crucial to the continued growth of Alabama State.

“We are wanting to make sure people are taking a closer look the breadth of opportunities available for study at ASU,” Harris said.