NITZSCHKE INAUGURATED AT SEMO; `EDUCATION IS THE KEY TO CREATING TOMORROW,' HE SAYS

Dr. Dale F. Nitzschke, Southeast Missouri State's 16th president.

The nation must renew its commitment to higher education, Southeast Missouri State University's president said Thursday.

Dr. Dale Nitzschke voiced his views about higher education at his inauguration as Southeast's president.

Nitzschke is the 16th president in the 124-year history of the Cape Girardeau university.

About 2,500 people, many of them university employees and students, attended the hour-and-a-half ceremony at the Show Me Center.

Admission was free. More than 3,000 tickets were distributed for the event.

But many people didn't show up and a few walked out in the middle of the ceremony.

School officials attributed the lower turnout to a last-minute cancellation by the featured speaker, poet Maya Angelou.

A winter storm canceled Angelou's morning flight to St. Louis and alternate travel plans couldn't be arranged in time, university officials said.

Southeast publicly announced the cancellation through the news media just a few hours before the start of the 2 p.m. ceremony.

Four former Southeast presidents -- Bill Stacy, Robert Foster, Kala Stroup and Bill Atchley -- were on hand for the inauguration.

Stroup, Missouri's commissioner of higher education, made brief remarks, as did Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan and other platform guests.

President Bill Clinton sent a congratulatory letter, which was read aloud. "The responsibilities and challenges of leadership are always great," Clinton wrote.

David Naugler, who chairs the Faculty Senate at Southeast, praised Nitzschke.

"In Dale Nitzschke, we have an effective leader who understands that what we do is a calling and not just a job," he said.

In his inaugural speech, Nitzschke said political leaders and the public will continue to demand that universities operate efficiently and practice financial restraint.

"And we will do all we can to meet those demands, to maintain the affordability of education at Southeast by keeping administrative costs to an absolute minimum," he said.

But at the same time, colleges need more money from both the public and private sectors, Nitzschke said.

"We can afford to do no less because education, as never before, is the key to creating tomorrow," he said.

"Creating Tomorrow" was the theme for the weeklong inauguration activities.

Nitzschke said Southeast exists to educate students and provide them a broad foundation in the liberal arts.

He said higher education must deal with an information-based, highly technical future involving a multicultural society.

"Everyone who hopes to get a good job will need to be literate, to be able to access information, to be able to think creatively, and to be able to communicate well," he said.

Nitzschke said Americans will have to interact more with people of other nations as well as those of other ethnic backgrounds at home.

Higher education will have to rely on partnerships among four-year and two-year colleges, and school districts to develop "a seamless web of educational excellence."

Nitzschke compared a university to an orchestra, with the president as the conductor, faculty and staff as musicians, the Board of Regents as a vigilant and demanding critic, and the students and public as the ticket holders.

A great university, he said, needs friends and supporters, but also critics to keep it focused.