Lorelei Roberts curated this story by Elaine Conger, which The Appalachian published March, 30 1982.
Dean Richard E. Sorensen is resigning from his position at ASU as Dean of the Business College to assume a dean’s position at Virginia Polytechnical Institute in Blacksburg, Virginia.
The position at VPI was announced in February of 1981, and Sorensen was nominated for the position in March. Sorensen was interviewed in November of 1981.
“It’s not something that just came up in the last week,” explained Dr. Harvey Durham, Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs.
Dean Sorensen said he found out that the position was open to him about two weeks ago. “It’s an opportunity for me in my own personal development to move to a larger school with more state funding,” said Sorensen.
One popular opinion may be that Sorensen’s resigning is in some way connected to the recent problems concerning the business college.
But Sorensen explained that the reason for the timing of his resignation was that “last spring when we received our graduate accreditation, I felt that I could look at opportunities like this. I had been offered opportunities in the past, but turned them down because I wanted to see our program accredited before I left.”
Sorensen also explained that most of his visits to VPI occured before the current problems in the business college began.
Dr. Harvey Durham said that there would be no permanent dean for the upcoming fall semester, but there “will be someone on charge.”
Durham stated that he would be talking with the Dean’s Advisory Council for suggestions to be made as to the new dean.
According to Sorensen, 26 percent of the business professors have signed summer contracts, and those professors are being asked if they would like to teach additional classes.
Sorensen will be sending a memo to students in the business college on Monday, April 5 to notify them as to what course will be offered in the summer session and which professors will be instructing them.
Durham commented on his feelings of Sorensen’s resignation by saying, “We have an awful lot of good people as ASU, and from time to time we have to expect to lose some of them.”
