Ruthi Jones Sturdevant A leader at Lincoln
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NewsTribune, Online Edition,
Tuesday, November 26, 2002
By BOB WATSON
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Ruthi Jones Sturdevant grew up in Jefferson City, graduated from Jefferson City High School in 1969 and decided to stay home to go to college.
Now, she is the new head of Lincoln University's mathematics program and is entering her third year as president of LU's Faculty-Staff Senate.
She chose Lincoln for "the same reasons lots of Central Missouri kids go here," Sturdevant recalled last week. "I didn't have any money and it was economical and it was home. ... I think going to Lincoln was the best thing that ever happened to me."
After graduating from LU in 1975 -- with majors in English and math, and a minor in anthropology -- Sturdevant worked as a teaching assistant at the University of Missouri-Columbia while earning her master's degree.
Motherhood -- in the form of two sons born in 1979 and '84 -- delayed the completion of her doctorate until 1989.
Her mother, Pat Jones, was an art teacher, but Sturdevant had decided while at Lincoln that she didn't want to teach -- only to discover while working as a UMC teaching assistant "that I loved it so much that I really wanted to be a teacher, and I've wanted to be a teacher ever since."
She now says: "The nicest evaluation form I can ever get is from a student who says 'I always hated math until I had you for a teacher.'
"(At Lincoln), we make the lowest salaries of anybody in the state, so you have to stay here for another reason -- you're not staying here to make a lot of money."
Sturdevant has been teaching at LU since 1980, when she was asked to fill a math department vacancy. She learned about the opening while visiting the campus to get information on a child-development class she wanted to take as a new mother.
She said Lincoln is a friendly campus, where people know a lot about each other, and many feel like they belong to a special family.
The "family" idea had special meaning for Sturdevant: She met her husband, anthropologist Craig Sturdevant, when she was a student and he was the Intro to Sociology teacher.
They married in 1975. He's now retired.
As the Math Department's new head, Sturdevant's responsible for overseeing budgets, supplies and communication among staff.
But helping Lincoln's faculty and staff communicate -- especially with President David Henson and other administrators -- also has been her assignment as Faculty-Staff Senate president for the last two years.
While the first year was quiet, she said, last year was full of employees' unhappiness over the lack of pay raises and other issues, while the Board of Curators gave Henson a one-time bonus.
The employees narrowly approved a no-confidence resolution in Henson's leadership, but LU's curators said they have full confidence in the president.
"In terms of the issues, the chair of the body is supposed to be neutral," Sturdevant said. "I'm not known for being real quiet, so sometimes trying to hold my tongue is hard.
"There have been some meetings that I didn't want to go in and open up."
She said the Senate has made some requests -- like pay raises -- that Henson's administration can't now fulfill.
But there are other issues where she's sure Henson's final action was taken because he listened to the employees' concerns.
She told curators this month LU's Senate is unique among Missouri's public colleges and universities, because it includes staff as members.
"The secretaries know more about what goes on in this institution than anybody else," she noted. "Their contribution is invaluable."
With LU's open enrollment policy --providing a chance for a college education to people who have been "under-prepared" in their basic education -- and ties with people throughout the world, Sturdevant said the school provides learning opportunities not available at other colleges.
"We do some really important things here, and people don't always recognize that," she said. "We give people an honest chance."
Sturdevant said Lincoln gave her a chance to grow.
"I came here and became friends with people from all over the world. I got to know people that I would not have gotten to know," she said.
"Social life in Jefferson City was very segregated until I got over here. ...
"It changed me forever -- for the better."
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