STUDENT AFFAIRS VP AT SEMO RESIGNS; RESTRUCTURING OF DIVISION PLANNED

The vice president for student affairs at Southeast Missouri State University has resigned effective June 30.

Dr. SueAnn Strom told her staff last week that she was resigning from the $94,000-a-year job. She had served in that position since August 1992, having come to Southeast after serving as assistant vice president of student affairs at Mankato State University in Minnesota.

Southeast announced Strom's resignation in a three-sentence statement issued at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Southeast's president, Dr. Dale Nitzschke, said later that he plans to restructure the student affairs division within the next few weeks and eliminate the position of vice president for student affairs.

He said the goal is to streamline operations in student affairs.

Nitzschke said he will move some of the business functions of student affairs such as residence hall operations and other auxiliary services to the finance and administration division headed by executive vice president Dr. Ken Dobbins.

Other functions of student affairs will be placed under the supervision of the school's chief academic officer, provost Dr. Charles Kupchella.

He said this would give a "more academic flavor" to student services. The dean of students, Dr. Kimberly Barrett, will have a more high-profile position under the provost, Nitzschke said.

He said that organizational structure has been adopted by other universities.

Nitzschke said Strom's resignation provides the opportunity to restructure the student affairs operation. "You strike when the iron is hot," he said.

Nitzschke said he had discussed the restructuring move on several occasions with the Board of Regents, the university's vice presidents and even student leaders.

He said he had probably two dozen discussions with Strom over the past two years about possible restructuring moves. Nitzschke said he had not asked her to resign. He said Strom had reached a point in her life where she wanted to make a career change.

"She has options of going to one or two other institutions," he said.

She also has the option of staying at Southeast. She has been offered a teaching position in the educational administration and counseling department.

Strom said Tuesday night from Breckenridge, Colo., that she is weighing her options and considering what is best at this point in her career.

"There are some wonderful and exciting challenges ahead in education," she said. "I have talked for some time with Dr. Nitzschke about what role I might play at Southeast, and being on the faculty full time is very intriguing. It would be a real honor to start working with the education program in the 1998-99 academic year."

She would not comment on possible jobs at other schools and said she expects to make a decision by the end of the month.

Nitzschke said the university has a master-of-arts-in-education program that prepares students for positions in higher education. "The program has been floundering for seven or 10 years," he said.

Strom could help strengthen the program if she takes the faculty job, Nitzschke said.

The university recently lost its appeal of an AIDS discrimination case. Southeast had to pay a judgment of some $665,000, including interest that accumulated while the university appealed a trial judge's ruling.

Circuit Judge Fred Copeland ruled last December that the school fired Harry Schuler because he had AIDS. Schuler oversaw the federally funded Trio programs at Southeast as director of Student Educational Opportunity Programs.

The Trio programs encouraged at-risk students to go to college and assisted first-generation and low-income college students to stay in school.

The university had argued that Schuler was fired because of financial mismanagement.

The university reprimanded Strom in connection with the financial problem and took disciplinary action against others involved with the Trio programs.

Nitzschke discounted Schuler's civil suit as a reason for Strom's departure. "That had nothing to do with it in my mind," he said.

Schuler's attorney, Michael Ponder, said he didn't know why Strom resigned. Still, he said Strom was a central figure in the lawsuit. He said the lawsuit had given "a black eye" to the school.

Don Dickerson, president of the Board of Regents, said Nitzschke briefly mentioned Strom's resignation during a closed-door meeting with the regents Monday to review the proposed budget for fiscal 1999.

Nitzschke said the restructuring moves will be outlined at the board's July meeting.