President Vargas building a strong connection with students

As the first year of President Carlos Vargas' term at Southeast Missouri State University comes to a close, it is not yet certain what legacy he will leave, but one thing is for sure, he cares immensely about students.

Since being hired, Vargas already has established a reputation of being accessible and present for students and their causes. One of the things Vargas has become known for is being active and playing sports, specifically soccer, with different groups of students.

"I do enjoy playing sports myself, so that comes easily to me," Vargas said. "... But the other thing it does is allows me to hear from the students, and it is a non-threatening situation. Because we are playing and because we're having fun there's nothing to focus on, I think they don't feel like they're being asked questions, and it sort of gives me an opportunity to hear from the students, what they enjoy, what they don't enjoy, what things we're doing well, not doing well, and then it also gives me an opportunity to send a message. I very often will make comments about having a commitment to their studies. I talk to them about examples that maybe I went through, experiences I had or my kids had, so I think that by playing a sport we are all in a position where we are more receptive to thoughts and ideas that otherwise we may not."

In addition to playing sports and games with students himself, Vargas also frequently attends Southeast sporting events, lunches and ceremonies for student organizations, and has attended Greek students' philanthropy events and this year's Greek Week activities.

"I know Dr. Vargas goes out of his way to hang out with all sorts of people, on campus," Student Government Association President Peter Jacobsen said. "He plays soccer with people, he visited my fraternity and kind of went around the house. It was the first time he'd ever been in a fraternity house he told us, and had a really good time. He's just great to interact with on a personal level because he's always so interested in every person that he meets. I remember the first time on campus that I met him, I was running for student government president, that was when he was interviewing, and then when he came back to campus as officially the president, he remembered who I was, and there are lots of stories like that where he meets someone for five minutes and then remembers their name. ... I think I would be underselling her if I didn't also say his wife [Pam Vargas] is at everything with him. She's just as involved with the students as he is, so it's great to see her around too."

Jacobsen served as SGA president during the transition from President Kenneth Dobbins to Vargas and has had most of his interactions with Vargas in meetings.

"The amazing thing about Dr. Vargas is that out of everyone in the room he's the one who asks about the students, and I don't think it's just because I'm in the room, because I've heard in closed meetings he's the same way," Jacobsen said. "Even if a topic doesn't relate to students at all, he'll look at the way it's going to impact them, at least indirectly if not directly. So I think the cool thing about Dr. Vargas is that students really are his center focus and it's really genuine. Everybody can tell in his meetings that he's always putting how it affects the students first and everything else is secondary."

As more students realize how supportive Vargas and his wife Pam have been, they continue to be invited to more and more events.

"Well I have to be honest, it could get to the point where I'm just unable [to attend everything], but I'm not looking to reduce my level of involvement," Vargas said. "I do have a lot of energy. I enjoy doing things, so it's not something that I see as a part of my job, even though in some ways it is. I just enjoy doing it. So to me, interacting with students is a way to actually bring some balance into my life. It's almost like when you go home and you're with your family, now I see that as almost the same thing.

"... I'm going to continue to refine the way I interact with students, and by refine I mean I'm going to continue to be involved in ways that I feel, first of all, will cause some excitement in me, but also will get the students to feel like I'm just an average person like everybody else. I don't want them to feel like I'm just in some office somewhere and they don't even recognize me. I want them to feel that I'm out there and if they have a question or something they want to say to me they can."