SCHMIDT STEPS DOWN AS DEAN OF BUSINESS COLLEGE

The dean of the College of Business Administration at Southeast Missouri State University has resigned to take a similar administrative position at a small Catholic university in Miami.

Richard Schmidt, who helped push Southeast's business program along the road toward national accreditation, said Friday that the resignation will take effect in September. He said an interim dean will be appointed to direct the college until a new dean can be hired.

Schmidt said he's looking forward to his new job as dean of the school of business at St. Thomas University. "It is a growing, progressive school that wants to improve the quality of education," he said.

The private university, run by the archdiocese of Miami, has an enrollment of about 3,500 and has just formed a school of business from its current division of business, Schmidt said.

Schmidt will be the first dean of the new business school.

The university has a growing business school, he said. "They are a niche carver. The school of business has programs in travel and tourism, programs in sports administration, as well as traditional programs in management and accounting."

Schmidt came to Southeast four years ago from Creighton University, a private school in Omaha, Neb. Prior to that, he taught in the state university system in California.

He said he's looking forward to returning to private-school education.

"I like the autonomy away from the bureaucracy of a state system," said Schmidt.

With a small, private school, he said, there are fewer admini~strators. "You also have people who will take responsibility for things," he added.

"You have a little more control over your own destiny and your own life," Schmidt said of private schools. "Here (at Southeast), you have the security of being a part of the state system. But you give up autonomy for that security."

A case in point, he said, is the uncertainty over securing state funding for construction of a new business building at Southeast.

Planning has been under way for several years, but the state has yet to allocate funding for construction of the building.

"That has caused a lot of frustration for the faculty as well as everybody else, this start-and-stop stuff," he said.

One big attraction to moving to Miami, Schmidt said, is the weather. "I like the beach. I like the ocean."

Another attraction is the fact that he has a son and four grandchildren living in Florida. "That's a big factor," he said.

Schmidt said he and his wife, Shauna, are currently trying to sell their Lexington Street home in preparation for their move to Florida. "I really would like to leave Cape Girardeau with the house sold," he said.