MEDIA ADVISORY
                                                                    November 12, 2002

Contact:
Terry Hapney, Director of Communications
Office: (740) 351-3112; FAX: (740) 351-3179
E-mail: thapney@shawnee.edu

To news directors, assignment managers, editors, producers, and reporters:

Rita Rice Morris, Ph.D., the first of three finalists for the position of president at Shawnee State University, will visit the SSU campus on Thursday, November 14.

Dr. Morris, provost and vice president for academic affairs at Lewis-Clark State College in Idaho, has over 30 years of experience in higher education as an instructor; assistant professor; associate professor; experimental college administrator; division head; coordinator of off campus programs; assistant to the dean; dean of the College of Communication, Computer Information Science, and Library Science; and dean of the College of Graduate and Extended Studies. She has held appointments at Lewis-Clark State College, Clarion University of PA, Slippery Rock University, Davis and Elkins College, Bowdoin College, Montana State University, Southwest Missouri State University, State University of New York at Buffalo, Albion College, Illinois State University, and Northern Illinois University. Her Ph.D. is in communication from the State University of New York at Buffalo (1978), M.A. is in speech communication education from Northern Illinois University (1970), and B.A. is in speech communication from California State University at Long Beach (1968).

Representatives from local, regional, and statewide media outlets are invited to attend an interview session scheduled with Dr. Morris from 3:15 p.m. to 3:45 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 14 in the President’s Conference Room located in the Administration Building on the SSU campus. An open forum for the community is scheduled from 4:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. that same day in the Flohr Lecture Hall located in the Clark Memorial Library on the SSU campus. This may provide additional time to conduct interviews.

Call the SSU Office of Communications at (740) 351-3112 for more information, or visit the SSU web site at www.shawnee.edu , and click on “Presidential Search” in the lower, left-hand corner of the page.

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