Pair of Southeast officials to leave jobs

Two Southeast Missouri State University officials are leaving the school. One, Loren Rullman, a university assistant vice president, is leaving voluntarily. The other, alumni director Kim Groves, was forced out by budget cuts.

"It is a major disappointment," said Groves.

"It has been a pleasure serving my alma mater and my fellow alumni. I really did enjoy it," said Groves, who has been the school's alumni director for nearly two years. Friday will be her last work day at Southeast. She officially leaves on Sunday and said she's looking for another job.

Throttled by state budget cuts, Southeast is looking to raise funds to help make ends meet, she said. In her job, Groves directed alumni activities such as the annual Homecoming celebration. She worked in the university's advancement office headed by Alan Zacharias, the school's chief fund-raising official. But Groves said her alumni activities didn't involve raising funds.

Zacharias, vice president for university advancement and executive director of the fund-raising for Southeast Missouri University Foundation, said alumni services will be restructured.

Jane Stacy, director of development, and Doug McDermott, associate director of development and a former student regent, will handle the alumni services duties. Stacy was alumni director for 25 years before being named development director, a fund-raising job, in 1997.

"This was a very difficult decision," Zacharias said, "but one that had to be made in light of the circumstances."

The restructuring also included moving a secretary to a different university office.

The moves trimmed $30,000 in expenses and put more money into fund raising, Zacharias said in discussing possible budget cuts earlier this month.

Going to Michigan

Rullman, assistant vice president for enrollment management and director of student auxiliary services, is leaving July 29 to take a job as director of university unions at the University of Michigan.

No replacement has been named at Southeast.

Rullman said budget cuts weren't a factor in his decision to leave Southeast.

"First of all, I am going home," Rullman said Monday. "I have family in Michigan, friends in Michigan. I have been away for 19 years."

Rullman said the move to Ann Arbor, Mich., also will put his family closer to his wife's relatives who live on the East Coast.

Rullman will supervise three student unions and a fourth that is under construction. The university has an enrollment of 37,000 students, about four times the size of Southeast.

In his new job, Rullman will be in charge of 150 full-time employees, 500 part-time workers and an $18 million budget.

"I love students and I love working with people who work with students, and I will get to do all of those things," he said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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