Last weekend, a robot competition, a basketball game and a River Campus adaptation of the musical "Carousel" were part of a slew of activities that immersed Southeast Missouri State University's new provost in university culture.

After a month on the job, the university's new chief academic officer, Dr. Ronald Rosati, has started work on projects like Cape Girardeau's new community college center and budget cuts instituted late last year. Rosati said he is also getting acquainted with Cape Girardeau and the university.

"My main goal is to get to know people," he said.

After a nationwide search, Rosati filled the position left by former provost Dr. Jane Stephens, who held the job for 10 years. Before leaving, Stephens oversaw cuts to academic affairs, which were part of nearly $8 million of budget cuts throughout the university. In January, Southeast announced the elimination of 24 positions, including 5.5 vacant spots.

Rosati said he is working with some of the eight budget review subcommittees set up to make cuts to other areas of the university. Next week forums will be held to get feedback from faculty members as subcommittees outline their findings, he said.

As the university continues to evaluate the budget, it will have to balance additional growth with grim state revenue predictions.

"This budget cut is not slowing down our growth," he said.

Rosati served as vice president for academic affairs at Alfred State College for the past three years and provost for the past two. For nine months in 2007 and 2008, he was the officer-in-charge during the college's presidential search.

Alfred State is a college of technology within the State University of New York. Because New York's revenue is directly affected by the performance of Wall Street, higher education funding has been less stable there for four years, he said.

"The positive side of that is I've had a lot of experience cutting budgets," he said.

Redirecting money to successful academic programs and streamlining services are part of budget-cutting decisions, he said.

Rosati joins the university at a time when it is working with other institutions to expand in a new way. Cape Girardeau County's new community college center is set to open in the fall. University staff are collaborating with staff at Three Rivers Community College to coordinate details of the open-admission center.

"A lot of people are working very hard to make this happen," he said.

Last week he attended a meeting with the coalition of local business and education leaders that has been steering the project. He said the center will help serve the needs of students throughout the region. Institutions will have to steer clear of duplicating services because that will increase costs to current students.

"If we do that, somebody has to pay for it," he said.

Rosati has a background in agriculture. He said he taught agricultural engineering technology for about 17 years. He previously worked at Texas A&M University in Kingsville and Illinois State University.

He said his wife and three children will wait until the end of the school year to relocate to Missouri. The community, he said, has been welcoming as he adjusts to the area and waits for his family to move in.

"Microwave chili night after night just doesn't cut it," he said.

abusch@semissourian.com

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