DEPARTMENT CHAIR AT SEMO CHANGES JOBS AMID LAWSUITS

Dr. Sterling Cossaboom has resigned as chairman of Southeast Missouri State University's music department amid allegations that he sexually harassed two women who formerly taught in the department.

University officials said the job change isn't related to the lawsuits. But the lawyer for the two women suggests it is.

The resignation took effect at the beginning of this month. Cossaboom will remain on the music faculty. He will teach two classes and also serve as director of the university's new Advanced Placement office.

Dr. Charles Kupchella, provost, said a current member of the music faculty will be named chairman.

"I have the recommendation on my desk," he said Monday.

The university will pay a part-time teacher to handle the other two classes that Cossaboom otherwise would have been teaching.

In his new job, Cossaboom will help set up programs to train high school teachers in teaching Advanced Placement courses. Such courses allow students to obtain college credit while in high school.

The Missouri General Assembly this year funded a proposal in which Southeast and Truman State University at Kirksville will jointly provide Advanced Placement training for teachers throughout the state.

Southeast has received $167,000 in state funding for its share of the program, officials said.

The university will set up an office for Cossaboom, probably in Academic Hall, school officials said.

Kupchella said he didn't ask Cossaboom to resign as music department chairman. Dr. Dale Nitzschke, Southeast's president, said Cossaboom wanted to change jobs.

"It was a pretty natural, normal thing," he said.

Nitzschke said Cossaboom is both energetic and capable.

But J. Michael Ponder, the Cape Girardeau lawyer for the two women who filed the lawsuits, said the resignation was long overdue.

"Had the university done this before it was necessary to file suit it would have solved a lot of problems and gone a long way toward settling the differences between my clients and the university," Ponder said.

He said his clients won't drop their lawsuits just because Cossaboom is no longer music department chairman.

Last October, then music professor Dr. Louisa Panou-Takahashi filed a lawsuit in federal court against Cossaboom and school administrators.

She alleged Cossaboom sexually harassed her and that she was fired when she complained.

In January, Heidi Bergman, a former music instructor at Southeast, filed a lawsuit in Cape Girardeau County Circuit Court.

She said Cossaboom sexually harassed and discriminated against her, and defamed her.

Bergman said university administrators never addressed the problem. Ultimately, she said, Cossaboom engineered her dismissal.

Panou-Takahashi's lawsuit is set for trial in February. No trial date has been set in Bergman's case.

Bergman is pursuing a doctorate degree at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Panou-Takahashi is moving from Cape Girardeau to take a part-time job teaching music at another university.

A music department secretary at Southeast said Cossaboom was on vacation Monday. He couldn't be reached for comment.