Newly hired Honors College Faculty Coordinator Rex Stem, who is also a professor in the foreign language department, resigned Monday from his position as faculty coordinator.
Mimi LaValle, communications manager for Residential Life, said she didn’t know why Stem had resigned and could only confirm that he resigned Monday.
Stem occupied one of the positions vacated when the Honors College replaced former Honors College Director of Student Services Perry Prestholdt, whose termination as an employee of the Honors College at the end of spring 2003 sparked an outcry from many honors students.
But Stem’s position is different from the position Prestholdt held in the Honors College.
“I was working with recruitment, student programs and faculty coordinator before I left,” Prestholdt said. “Rex was the faculty coordinator, he was in charge of the residential life for the college.”
Honors College Dean Nancy Clark and Prestholdt both said the staff and positions in the Honors College had been changed dramatically since Prestholdt’s firing.
“We now have two full-time advisers,” Clark said. “We have an assistant to the dean, an external relations and alumni affairs coordinators as well. It was a whole reorganization of the office.”
Honors College Student Council President Michael Tipton said rumors that Prestholdt was fired to redistribute his salary was unfounded.
“Those were mainly student rumors,” Tipton said. “It wasn’t his salary. They moved a lot of people around and restructured the office.”
Chemical Engineering senior Rhonda Bengtson, president of the Honors College Fellows, said she didn’t know a lot about Stem’s resignation. According to Bengtson, who found out about Stem’s resignation Monday, Stem was hired through the Department of Residential Life to coordinate college activities in the honors dorms.
Prestholdt said he had met with Stem many times this summer to discuss the Honors College programming for the 2003-2004 school year.
Prestholdt, who said he has nothing to do with the honors program, also said with Stem’s resignation Honors College programming in general may be in jeopardy.
Clark said she was not sure how long it would take for a new faculty adviser to be selected by the Department of Residential Life.
“I didn’t sit in on the original interview,” Clark said. “We just distribute the fliers to professors, and they apply on their own.”
Stem did not return phone calls to his office and home.