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PRICE, Utah (AP) -- Utah's higher education Board of Regents on Friday named Gregory Lynn Stauffer as the interim president of Southern Utah University.
Stauffer will take over the Cedar City school in May when current President Steven Bennion retires. SUU's president for nine years, Bennion announced his departure in April.
A national search is being conducted to find a permanent replacement, board chairman Nolan Karras said. The search could last through the end of the year.
Stauffer is currently SUU's vice president for administrative and financial services. He came to SUU in 1995 from Peru State College in Peru, Neb., where he was the chief financial officer. Stauffer holds a bachelor's degree from Washburn University, a master's in business administration from Missouri State University and a doctorate in education from the University of Kansas.
Stauffer declined to say if he'll seek the president's job permanently.
"It's a daunting task," he said. "I've worked for eight presidents and they have a hard time having a balanced life because the job is 24/7. My focus is on the interim time period."
Bennion is credited with shepherding significant growth for the 108-year-old college. On his watch, SUU has added undergraduate and graduate degree programs and constructed new facilities for physical education, faculty and staff offices, visual arts learning labs, and has also begun construction on a new teacher education building.
SUU's enrollment for the 2005-2006 school year grew 2.8 percent to 6,859 students.
On the net: http://www.suu.edu/
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
