BILL STACY TAKES JOB AT TENNESSEE UNIVERSITY

Former Southeast Missouri State University president Dr. Bill Stacy has been hired as chancellor of the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga.

Stacy, 58, begins the job Aug. 1.

For the past eight years he has served as president of California State University-San Marcos. He helped launch the new school after leaving Southeast in 1989.

The Chattanooga school is one of four campuses in the Tennessee system. The University of Tennessee Board of Trustees hired Stacy last week. He was one of nearly 100 applicants for the job.

Stacy, who has three children and five grandchildren, said he wanted to return to his roots. He was born in Bristol, Tenn., in the far northeastern part of the state.

California state Sen. Bill Craven told the San Diego Union-Tribune that Stacy was "still a stranger" to the San Diego area.

"He's a southerner, very genteel," said Craven. "I really think he and his wife, who is also a southerner, had a yearning to go home," he said.

Stacy told the Union-Tribune that he looked forward to his new job with a 110-year-old institution.

The Tennessee trustees were impressed with Stacy's warmth and his administrative achievements, The Chattanooga Times reported.

Stacy started the California school in a San Diego-area strip mall next to a furniture store.

"I was the first employee," he recalled during a visit to Cape Girardeau in September. "I had no other employees. I had no building. I had to start in a rented office," said Stacy. There were no students and no faculty.

The school opened in 1990 in 19,000-square-feet of rented quarters. Two years later it moved to its new campus. Today, the university is on a 300-acre campus with about a dozen buildings, 200 faculty members and 4,500 students.

Stacy was the fledgling California school's biggest fan, some said. But he reportedly was frustrated by a lack of funds for needed expansion. The school is building its first new facility since the campus opened in 1992.

Campus racial tensions also may have played a role in Stacy's departure. In August a white student verbally abused a black professor. The campus is largely white. Since the incident, the campus has been hit with bomb threats, racist fliers and graffiti.

Last fall some black faculty members accused the university of institutional racism and creating a hostile environment for professors.

But the head of the local African American Advisory Council said Stacy promoted racial diversity at the school.

San Diego Union-Tribune columnist Logan Jenkins wrote about Stacy last week: "Stacy, a champion of the multicultural revolution, became its major victim. My guess is he's too sensitive, too good for the dirty campus fight ahead. I was in his office following a strained meeting with black faculty members. He received word that a `friend' of the university had died. He offered his condolences over the phone and returned to the conference table. He quietly wept. Stagey? Not a bit. Genuine. Human."

A 1960 graduate of Southeast, Stacy later taught speech at the university before moving over to the administrative side.

Stacy served as president of Southeast from 1979 to 1989. As Southeast's president, Stacy was a key player in a joint university-city partnership that led to construction of the Show Me Center.

He participated last September in the dedication of Southeast's new business building. "I love being home. I miss the university. I miss its people," he said at the dedication.