UNIVERSITY APPOINTS ASSISTANT TO PRESIDENT

Tucked away in temporary quarters a small, sparse office in Academic Hall Leonard W. Clark already is hard at work.

Clark, 49, is the latest addition to the Southeast Missouri State University administrative team.

His job title is a lengthy one: assistant to the president for equal opportunity/diversity issues and university policy development.

University officials said Clark will be responsible for enhancement of Southeast's affirmative action and Equal Employment Opportunity programs and establishment of new programs. He also will work to encourage campus participation by racial and ethnic minorities, women, the disabled, and other segments of faculty, staff and students.

The position was vacated last October with the death of Edward M. Spicer.

The Board of Regents approved the appointment in a closed-door session last week, but university officials only made it public Tuesday. Clark salary is $50,221, which includes $2,721 in family medical benefits.

Clark previously served as executive director of the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights, based in Louisville, Ky.

"Leonard Clark has the broad range of experience and personal dedication to equal opportunity issues that we had hoped to find for this vital position," Southeast President Kala Stroup said in a prepared statement.

"Not only has he been heavily involved in Equal Employment Opportunity and affirmative action programs at both the state and local level in four states, but he is also an attorney with experience in the public and private sectors," said Stroup.

A former high school teacher, Clark said he has a variety of job experiences that he believes will be an asset in his new job.

Clark grew up in Lawrence, Kan., home to the University of Kansas. "I grew up in a university environment," he said.

Clark's grandfather was one of the first blacks to graduate from the University of Kansas law school, graduating in 1896.

Clark, who earned a bachelor's degree in education from Wichita State University, was a high school teacher for four years.

"I was the first black teacher at my old high school in Lawrence," said Clark, who began teaching in 1965.

He subsequently earned a law degree from the University of Kansas and went into private practice in Lawrence. Clark served as director of the Office of Equal Employment Opportunity for the state of Kansas from 1985-1988.

He served as director of equal opportunity and human relations for the Hillsborough County Human Relations Department in Tampa, Fla., from 1988 to 1989.

In 1989, Clark took the administrative post with the Kentucky human rights commission. He left that position at the end of February to do private consultations.

Clark said he has no plans to continue with his consulting work now that he has been hired at Southeast.

"I intend to devote my energies to this position," he said. "I think the job presents an excellent opportunity for me to grow professionally."

Affirmative action and equal opportunity are major issues affecting education and society as a whole, he said. Many colleges and universities nationwide have been slow to demonstrate real commitment to these goals, he said.

The "diversity issue" has become a major concern nationally, said Clark.

"I believe it is an issue for our country, this nation as a whole," he said.

If the U.S. is to compete in the world marketplace, it must make good use of its resources, Clark said, and one of the nation's major resources is its people. "We are rich in people," he added.

"This country cannot afford to deprive people of education and not make the best use of our natural resources," Clark said. "We have to see the things we have in common and embrace our differences."

He said there's nothing wrong with having pride in one's culture. "For me to teach my children about black history and to be proud of who they are, certainly doesn't mean that I am in any way going to be opposed to people who are white," he said.

Clark said that people have becoce polarized over race and other issues and that the downturn in the economy has exacerbated the problem.

Clark said there's more to his administrative job at Southeast than dealing with government regulations regarding affirmative action and Equal Employment Opportunity regulations.

"It goes beyond numbers and report making," he said. The job, he said, involves dealing with people.

And, he said, there are financial incentives such as grants for universities to focus on "diversity" programs. "It's a money issue," he added.

Clark and his wife, Leatha Dell, have four children.