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Tuesday, December 30, 1997

University trying to move up

SAN MARCOS, Texas (AP) - Large financial contributions and national attention for degree programs has the president of Southwest Texas State University pushing to make the university one of the state's top three public universities by 2005.

Two multimillion-dollar gifts from Roy and Joanne Mitte of Austin have helped give a boost to the nearly 21,000-student campus located in the hills of central Texas.

The Mittes gave $12.5 million in April for 125 academic scholarships to be given annually. They followed with a $5 million gift in August to endow five academic chairs of $1 million each. The nationwide search to fill the chairs begins next month, said S.W. Texas President Jerome Supple.

"When that ad comes out in the Chronicle for Higher Education and it says 'five endowed chairs at SWT,' that will send a message that things are moving here," Supple said.

The school's first doctoral program, in a nationally recognized geography department, began last year. Other departments have gained national attention, including the School of Business, which was recently accredited by the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business.

Those developments have helped the school, the alma mater of Lyndon B. Johnson, rebound from a critical 1996 state audit that said the university had overspent its athletic budget, overpaid for an apartment complex near the campus and bought Springs theme park for $2 million too much.

After the theme park lost $1.4 million, the university changed the focus of the park two years ago to an educational-environmental resource center.

"If there was an error in judgment, it was in our decision to keep it as a theme park," Supple said. "I never doubted the value of acquiring that property for the university. You just have to look at it and see the water bubbling out of the ground to see the enormous value it has as part of this campus."

Supple, 61, said the financial donations and recognition for degree programs make the time right to focus on muscling into the same ranks as Texas and Texas A&M.

"This is his mission, our university," said sociology professor Susan Day. "He saw we could be something when we all thought we couldn't."

Ron Brown, acting dean of the school of general studies, said Supple has targeted the goal and now it's up to the university community to make it happen.

"He wants the faculty and student body to reach for that, and it's in our grasp," Brown said. "He has a clear sense of who he is and what he wants to accomplish."

Supple came to Southwest Texas nine years ago after working at the State University of New York at Plattsburgh, N.Y., for 10 years. He worked with SUNY campuses in various professorships and administrative positions from 1964 up to his arrival at SWT.

"I've always liked where I worked," Supple said. "I've never gotten up in the morning and said, 'Oh, I have to go to work?' If I wanted to go to a larger national university, I would have left here after three or four years."

This year, Supple was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer. His third round of chemotherapy begins next month.

"The early indications are good," Supple said. "I am optimistic."

He said the disease hasn't cut into his work and he hopes it stays that way.

"This is really fun," Supple said. "I'm as excited about the future of the university as when I came here." Send a Letter to the Editor about This Story | Start or Join A Discussion about This Story
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