COLLEGE PLANNER TO TALK AT GRADUATION

A founding director of a policy center for postsecondary education will visit Southeast Missouri State University Friday and Saturday to help university leaders in their strategic planning process and to deliver the fall commencement address.

Robert Zemsky, director of the University of Pennsylvania's Institute for Research on Higher Education, will deliver the commencement talk at 2 p.m. in the Show Me Center.

Some 448 undergraduate and 40 graduate students will receive degrees at the fall commencement service.

Leading the class of undergraduates are Katherine E. Dobson of St. Louis with a 4.0 grade-point average will receive a bachelor of science degree in historic preservation; Amy E. Wencewicz of Cape Girardeau with a 4.0 grade-point average will receive a bachelor of science degree in education with a major in French; Susan Dockins of Jackson with a 3.974 grade-point average will receive a bachelor of science degree in nursing and bachelor of general studies degree; Saundra Blanchard of Arnold with a 3.942 grade-point average will receive a bachelor of science degree in elementary education; and Scott Pittman of Mount Vernon, Ill., with a 3.941 grade-point average will receive a bachelor of science degree in political science.

In addition, 12 undergraduate and two graduate student members of Phi Kappa Phi will be recognized during commencement exercises. Phi Kappa Phi is an international honor society for academic distinction that brings together men and women from a variety of disciplines who have demonstrated excellence in scholarship and integrity of character.

Southeast Missouri State University chartered its Phi Kappa Phi chapter in 1992.

An Honors Convocation to recognize graduates with at least a 3.5 grade-point average is scheduled Saturday at 11 a.m. in Academic Auditorium. Graduate students earning at least a 3.8 average also will be honored at that time.

Dr. Bruce Domazlicky of Southeast's Department of Economics will present remarks at the Honors Convocation.

In connection with Zemsky's commencement address, he will speak on restructuring higher education Friday at 1:30 p.m. in the Indian Room of the University Center.

Zemsky, who is a director of the Pew Higher Education Roundtable and the American Council on Education, will meet with the Southeast Missouri State University Board of Regents and the University Planning Committee at 3:30. He will discuss strategic planning themes for the university.

Some of the themes were gathered from the public and values and priorities expressed by faculty and staff in a campuswide survey.

On Saturday, he will meet with a higher education roundtable from 9 to 10:30 a.m., to discuss directions for the university. The roundtable is comprised of about 30 faculty and staff members.

In 1986, the Pennsylvania Institute was invited to develop and continues to hold The Pew Higher Education Roundtable.

In 1990, the Institute was selected to conduct the National Research and Development Center on the Educational Quality of the Workforce.

Zemsky serves as director of the National Center and as chairman of the Pew Higher Education Roundtable. In addition, he serves as senior editor of Policy Perspectives, a national quarterly about the nation's higher education agenda.

The Institute, which has a full-time staff of 30, also provides substantial institutional support to the University of Pennsylvania and to other major institutions.

Zemsky's international experience includes serving as a founding trustee to the International Centre for the Study of East Asian Development, Kitakuyshu, Japan; as chairman of the Transatlantic Dialogue of educational leaders from Europe and the United States, sponsored by The Pew Charitable Trusts in cooperation with the American Council on Education, the Conference of European Rectors, and the Institute for Research on Higher Education; as a senior consultant to the president and Parliament of Hungary; as a project consultant to the Ministry of Education, Republic of Zimbabwe, and to the Ministry of Education, Republic of Egypt; and as a leader of U.S.-sponsored seminars in Tunisia and India.

As an undergraduate, Zemsky spent 14 months in Denmark, and he frequently returns to Scandinavia. Zemsky's work as an historian using quantitative methods and computer simulations also led to a long association with the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research, and to the chairmanship of the Social Science Research Council's Committee on Social Science Personnel.

Zemsky's books and monographs include: Merchants, Farmers, and River Gods; The Structure of College Choice, with Penney Oedel; Unfinished Design, with Joseph Johnston and Susan Shaman; and Structure and Coherence. Working with William Massy, Zemsky currently is engaged in a major study of the underlying costs of an undergraduate education.

Zemsky is a trustee of Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa., is a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, a recipient of a postdoctoral fellowship from the Social Science Research Council, and has held visiting appointments at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Michigan. At the University of Pennsylvania, he also served as master of Hill College House.