A day in the life of President Dobbins

Dr. Kenneth W. Dobbins is the 16th president of Southeast Missouri State University. His preferred office is the board room in the president's office in Dempster Hall. While on campus, he attends meetings and speaks at events. He also travels on business.

"It's me, yes, but it's really my whole office," Dobbins said, referring to managing his day-to-day operations.

Diane Sides, the assistant to the president and assistant secretary to the Board of Regents, manages Dobbins' calendar. She arranges his schedule, makes appointments and drafts each speech he has to give.

Sides said their two busiest months this academic year were April and October. In April Dobbins has 18 events to speak at, and he spoke at 19 events in October.

"I don't know how he does it. ... He's like the Energizer Bunny," Sides said.

One thing about Dobbins that Sides thinks is amazing is how he can remember numbers, facts and speeches.

She has been working in the president of the university's office for 23 years.

"He's the ninth president I've worked for, and he's the best president I've worked for," Sides said. "He's the best."

His weekly calendar is color-coordinated and includes notes on reminders about events. His calendar on April 10 included 11 color-coordinated entries and five notes, and was the busiest day of his week.

8 - 10 a.m.

Dobbins arrived at the Convocation Center at the River Campus for the KRCU membership drive breakfast at 8 a.m. for his first, but not his last, speech of the day. Dobbins receives requests for speaking events daily when he's on campus, and sometimes speaks at multiple events in a day. He even speaks at events that happen on the weekends.

He took a call at 8:10 a.m. from the president of the Board of Regents.

He ate egg and ham casserole, fried potatoes with ketchup, French toast sticks and drank orange juice while sitting at the table with keynote speaker Joe Palca, a scientist reporter for National Public Radio. They chatted about weather patterns and storms, and Palca asked the table if anyone remembered the other hurricane that happened in 2005 besides Hurricane Katrina. Everyone thought for a moment before he said the answer was Hurricane Rita. Palca then told a story about interviewing the pilot of the plane while he was in in the eye of a hurricane. At 8:25 a.m., Dobbins introduced Palca.

After the breakfast, at 9:02 a.m., Dobbins returned to his office in Dempster, where he grabbed a Pepsi One and met with Kathy Mangels, the vice president for finance and administration at Southeast, to prepare for a Board of Regents meeting.

10a.m. - noon

Dr. Dobbins attends KRC membership drive breakfast. Photo by Drew Yount

At 10 a.m. Dobbins took a seat at the head of the table at the right hand of Doyle Privett, the president of the Board of Regents, in Glenn Auditorium, opened another can of Pepsi One and chatted for a moment with Privett before Privett called the meeting to order.

Privett handled the formalities of the meeting while Dobbins summoned presenters and answered questions that board members asked. One example of this was that they asked about the difference between Follett and Barnes and Noble College's offers and he replied that there was a $4,000 difference. The board approved turning the operation of the Southeast bookstore over to Follett, with Southeast retaining management of the textbook rental system.

Dobbins also said he asked for the meeting to be in April so that if the board approved turning the operation of the bookstore over to Follet, Follet could begin renovating the bookstore over the summer. The banking services was also going to change.

"This seems minor, but it really is not," Privett said about the banking services change.

At the meeting, Dobbins told the board that the university must allow bids from banking systems every four years, per state law. Dobbins said US Bank offered the best bid.

"It's a half a million dollar difference," Dobbins said.

The board approved turning the banking system at Southeast over to US Bank. Commerce Bank is currently the banking system at Southeast. The Board of Regents approved all the consent items listed on the agenda. At 11:22 a.m., Dobbins got another can of Pepsi One and he and the board went into a closed session.

Noon - 2 p.m.

Dr. Kennth Dobbins during a Board of Regents meeting. Photo by Drew Yount

At 12:10 p.m. Dobbins settled down at the head of the table in Dempster 102 for the 2013 Strategic Planning meeting.

Dobbins serves on multiple committees and facilitates discussions on how to improve the university and enhance "the student experience," as he called it during the meeting.

"Isn't this a nice room?" he asked the group, and everyone nodded and started to eat the provided lunch.

He sat next to Privett, and the two chatted for a few minutes. Then Dobbins left the room to take a call while everyone else ate.

He came back in the room and took a drink of his tea before joking, "Well, no lunch is ever free." Everyone chuckled and then he started the meeting with everyone going around and saying who they were.

Dobbins led the discussion and asked the attendees questions about where they were seeing the university and what areas could be improved upon. At first others were pretty quiet, but he continued to ask questions and they began to express their opinions, especially about keeping smaller class sizes.

"There's more to college than the classroom," Dobbins said about class sizes getting larger.

"I do believe the student experience is one we can improve," Dobbins said.

The members of the planning committee re-examined priorities from 2008 at this year's meeting and established seven: academics, the student experience, faculty and staff, communication, funding, technology and infrastructure. The members meet to ensure that the university is meeting the expectations of the university's mission statement and policies by establishing priorities, which are areas of focus.

"No one mentioned infrastructure. I don't know if I was surprised or pleased," Dobbins said to the group as he was wrapping up the meeting.

He asked if everyone was fine with infrastructure being a priority, although no one loudly supported or negated it. Later, Dobbins offhandedly mentioned that funding and infrastructure may merge into one priority. He then told them that each subcommittee should meet at least once before the end of the year and dismissed the meeting.

On the way back to his office after the meeting ended, Dobbins said he hadn't gotten to eat and he would eat his lunch up to his office.

In the hallway, he stopped and chatted with a couple of students, one of whom was holding an infant.

"How old is she?" he asked.

"Four months," the student said. "She's not mine. I'm just watching her."

He then told them he had grandchildren and the good thing about grandchildren is that grandparents "get to spoil their children and then send them home." The students laughed and then Dobbins headed off to his office.

2 - 5 p.m.

Dobbins grabbed a Pepsi One and popped it open. He went into his office and shifted some papers on the large conference room table, which takes up the majority of his office. He straightened the papers on his desk before Bill Eddleman, vice provost and dean of the School of Graduate Studies, Diana Rogers-Adkinson, the dean of the College of Education and Connie Herbert, the director of the Autism Center, walked in together a moment later. He welcomed them and sat on the right side of the table, clasping his hands together while the others settled in chairs across from him.

Herbert was lobbying to the president for additional funding for the autism center, which she said was expanding. Eddleman said they were there because the Autism Center was transitioning to be under the umbrella of the College of Education.

After an almost half-hour long closed meeting, the three walked out of his office in a group and immediately left. After the meeting, which Dobbins did not announce the results of, he said he had to revise seven drafts of speeches and send them back to Sides. He was able to remain in his office from 3-5 p.m. to complete this task because his next scheduled meeting had been changed. Dobbins said the draft speeches had been waiting for him to have a free moment.

5 - 9:30

Dr. Dobbins greets students before a Q&A with Jeff Corwin. Photo be Drew Yount

Dobbins power walked into the Show Me Center and headed to the meeting room, where he smiled and greeted students as they entered, shaking their hands. Chairs were lined up in rows with a table set up for Jeff Corwin, the last speaker of this year's Southeast's Speaker Series. The students sat down in the provided chairs and Dobbins took a seat in the second row, crossing his legs and settling into the chair.

Corwin sat on the table in front of the students so they could ask questions. At 6 p.m., Dobbins asked a question about dead zones caused by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. Corwin replied that the dead zones are like deserts under the sea now and will never return.

Dobbins then met with Corwin before the start of his speech. Dobbins also met with Patrick Vining, the outgoing president of Student Government Association, in a room labeled the President's Office at the Show Me Center. The room where he sat was square-shaped, and it led into a locker room and bathroom area. The room had carpet, a side table with water and Pepsi One, three couches and a coffee table with a fruit tray and posters signed by Corwin.

Dobbins took a Pepsi One, opened it and settled onto the couch next to Vining, across from Corwin. Dobbins and Corwin talked about about the winter weather and snow storms in Missouri, with Dobbins describing all the cities that had bad weather, especially Columbia. Corwin, a former Army medic, mentioned he'd been stationed at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri.

Joanna Shaver, the coordinator for campus programming, then came in and said the event would start five minutes late since students were still coming in. When Shaver left, Corwin asked why it was called Cape Girardeau, and Dobbins said it was because Cape Girardeau was the only inland cape on the Mississippi River.

At 7:40 p.m., Dobbins walked onto the stage at the Show Me Center and told the audience that 100 percent of the profits from paid tickets go to benefit merit scholarships at the university. He also said that two of the speakers for next year had been decided, Nicholas Sparks, a romance writer, and Blake Mycoskie, the CEO of TOMS. He then introduced Vining as the outgoing SGA president.

He sat at the end of the front row while Vining introduced Corwin with a short video about his life and work, and then Corwin came on the stage. Dobbins sat in the audience, and later concluded the speaker's presentation by saying thank you to the attendees for coming and to the speaker.

"It's very important to get outside voices speaking to our students -- outside Cape Girardeau, outside their experience," Dobbins said.

After the presentation, Dobbins shook hands with several people and talked to students about their view of the presentation and just in general about being students.

Afterwards, he made his way to the crowded meet and greet session with Jeff Corwin. He shook hands and chatted with people he knew and attendees and students. He posed for a picture with Corwin, and then continued to greet people as he made his way to the exit. Then, almost 13 hours after his day officially started, at 9:29 p.m., he left the room, his day finished. His day on April 11 would start in less than 12 hours at 9 a.m. with the provost at a meeting.

"Life's not always this busy," Dobbins said as he stepped out of the Show Me Center and into the pouring rain outside to return home.