Working knowledge - Millions of dollars, thousands of students

Tell Kelly Burris Wesener that overseeing Residence Life at Southeast Missouri State University to akin to running a small business, and she'll quickly disagree.

"It's like running a big business," said Burris Wesener, who has been Southeast's director of Residence Life since November 2003.

Hers is a job that requires strong business acumen and a working knowledge of contracts, budgets, housing requirements and good hiring practices -- all on top of her work dealing with students, parents and administrators who keep a close eye on the bottom line.

Burris Wesener, 36, negotiates housing contracts with 2,400 students who live on campus, as well as managing leases for university-owned properties for two fraternities. She also oversees the vending on campus -- Coke, Pepsi, Birch -- and contracts with laundry vendors.

She has a hand in food service contracts, she supervises a staff of 80 student workers, eight professionally trained, full-time hall directors and five central staff like associate directors and facilities managers.

Burris Wesener also recommends housing rates to the university's board of regents, keeping the rates competitive with other schools, while keeping fees reasonable. She also helps plan for renovations of residence halls and future expansions.

Not to mention that she is responsible for an annual budget in excess of $10 million.

So is there more business aspects to her job than she thought when she first got into the field?

"Absolutely," she said. "It's something we deal with every day."

Debbie Below, director of enrollment management at Southeast, is Burris Wesener's direct supervisor. She agrees that running Residence Life is like running a business.

"There's a lot of complexity," she said. "The residence halls are to be self-supporting. They raise their own revenue, and they pay their own bills. With that, it's very much like a business enterprise, and it's a multimillion-dollar business enterprise at that."

Burris Wesener has a strong background in student development, Below said. She's had to adjust and learn about some of the business-oriented aspects of her job, Below said.

"But she's learned," Below said. "There's no doubt that she has her hands around that budget and understands it."

Bruce Skinner, associate director for Residence Life, said that Burris Wesener is well-suited for all aspects of the job.

"Kelly is an individual who has a strength of working with other people," said Skinner, who started as a student worker in 1994. "Her strength is sitting down with students and parents and finding a solution."

She's got a good business head, too, he said.

"You can't depend on the state for anything, in terms of revenue," he said. "So she has to find ways to spend according to what she has. So there is a budget component. Her stronger suit is the personal dynamic, but she's not lacking in any of the other functional areas."

Burris Wesener -- "married with three cats" -- is originally from Wisconsin, where she got her bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. She worked for two years at the University of Wisconsin La Crosse and then went to Indiana University for her doctorate in higher education administration.

For four years, she worked at Hope College in Wisconsin as assistant dean of Residence Life before taking the job here.

But her job isn't all business.

She also has to deal with situations with students that come up every day.

"It could be that a student acted inappropriately or a parent being mad that a microwave doesn't work to a power outage like we had the other day," she said.

It's a mix of business and dealing with students that she enjoys.

"Most people think I oversee a bunch of baby sitters," she said. "I don't say that in a bad way, but they think we're just here to keep the peace. Our job is about developing students, and we take that job seriously."

smoyers@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137