Newly hired assistant director of athletics for compliance and eligibility makes smooth transition

Newly hired assistant director of athletics for compliance and eligibility Dr. Robert Greim has had a smooth transition as he checks off his second week under the position at Southeast.

Greim was hired on Jan. 17 and he hit the ground running. Without an assistant, Greim has been overwhelmed with the amount of work that has piled up, but is encouraged by the support he has received from his coworkers.

“This would be really tough if the coworkers, the campus, even the community didn’t care as much as they do,” Greim said. “It’s crazy to me to have a place where people are willing to help as much as they are here.”

As a small town Excelsior Springs, Missouri, native, Greim has always been a lover of sports, but has never been talented enough to play himself.

“When I was young, I was once called deceptively slow,” Greim said. “I’ll never forget it. It’s engrained in my brain. But I knew I loved sports and wanted to be around it.”

Greim’s older brother, Kevin Greim, played football at Missouri State in Springfield, so automatically Robert’s decision was made to become a Bear as well.

Greim oversaw the film crew for Missouri State’s football team for six years.

“It’s thankless work and a place for misplaced aggression to flow,” Greim said. “I didn’t know it at the time, but I was learning all about workplace climate and culture by doing that.”

His dream of becoming a football coach himself was interrupted when he realized the turnover rates and hours necessary to create a successful program.

“I had opportunities at Missouri State and I took them,” Greim said. “And I learned fairly quickly the realities of coaching and I didn’t want that for myself, but I still wanted to work with athletes.”

After graduating from Missouri State in 2000, Greim headed to Wyoming with his girlfriend for graduate school, where he worked heavily in student-athlete academic services.

“While I was earning my master’s, I learned that there were these theories that I had already been seeing for some time prior, organizational communication and things like that.” Greim said.

After spending two years in Wyoming, Greim moved back to Kansas City to serve at the University of Missouri - Kansas City as the assistant director of athletics for student services. Greim learned many things while at UMKC, from students and coaches alike.

“One of the things I was proud of while at that institution was helping people understand the importance of student growth, not just athletic growth,” Greim said. “I have seen many times that there aren’t policies in place that help students grow as students, not just the stressors of student-athletes.”

One instance while at UMKC drove Greim to go back to school and earn his doctorate. This instance had to do with a student-athlete who was embraced with open arms as a recruit, but when the student-athlete got to the university she was unofficially told she needed to be someone else. The issues were over her sexuality, clothing and even hairstyles. The student-athlete purposefully skipped her finals, decisively failing her classes so she would have an excuse to leave the university and the team because of such great depression caused by her coach.

“When the coach approached me about her grades, he was beyond furious,” Greim said, “and that’s when I knew there was something majorly wrong with the profession and that one student’s situation was the motivation for me going to get my doctorate.”

Greim’s experience with students isn’t so personal anymore now that he is working under the umbrella of compliance, but he still gets to shape the student experience by working with department policies and procedures.

The difference of the Cape Girardeau community and Southeast has been a game-changer for Greim and his family.

“At my past institutions, I felt a large disconnect with the community and the institution,” Greim said. “But here? Man, it’s the opposite. I have really enjoyed just the days I’ve been here so far.”

Greim and his wife, Jill, have two children, Charlie and Bridger.