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Florida Southern's President
Announces Departure in 2004

LAKELAND, Fla. (April 16, 2003) - Florida Southern College's sixteenth president Dr. Thomas L. Reuschling has announced his plans to leave the presidency at the end of the 2003-2004 academic year. He will have served ten years in the college's highest position. A national search for his successor will be conducted by college trustees. Faculty, staff, students, alumni and community leaders will be a part of the candidate interview process. 

"It's been an honor serving at Florida Southern," said Reuschling. "We've done some good things over the past ten years." Progress during the last nine years has included completing a successful $60 million campaign that enabled numerous capital improvements on the campus, raising enrollment from 1400 to 1800, enhancing diversity on campus, extending the town-gown relationship, preserving the strong values component of a Florida Southern education, and expanding opportunities for learning experiences abroad. "I will use the next year to continue to work on the very important long range goals of the college." Reuschling will use year 2004-2005 for relaxation and intellectual renewal. He'll return to Florida Southern in 2005 for duties which may include teaching and/or special projects. "Dotty and I have purchased a home in Lakeland and are looking forward to continuing involvement with Florida Southern and the Lakeland community.

"Dr. T. Terrell Sessums, chairman of the FSC Board of Trustees, announced that Robert Trinkle will serve as Chairman of the Search committee. Marcene Christoverson will serve as Chairman of the Presidential Search Advisory Committee. Executive assistant to the president Lynn M. Dennis will serve as college liaison in the search process.

Reuschling succeeded Dr. Robert A. Davis as the sixteenth president of the college taking office in 1994. Prior to coming to Florida Southern, Reuschling was the president of St. Andrews Presbyterian College in Laurinburg, North Carolina, for five and half years. He served for ten years as Dean of the Robins School of Business at the University of Richmond, Virginia, and head of the school of the Business at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls. Reuschling has his undergraduate degree from Hiram College, Ohio, MBA from Kent State University and Ph.D. from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

He has been involved in numerous educational and charitable organizations. He has served as chairman of the United Way of Central Florida and now serves on the boards of the Lakeland Area Chamber of Commerce, Success by Six, the Lakeland Community Foundation and is a member of the Polk County Schools Minority Achievement Banquet Committee. He is on the Executive Committee of Independent Colleges and Universities of Florida and is the immediate past president of the Florida Association of Colleges and Universities.

He and his wife, Dotty, have been married for 40 years and have two daughters and four grandchildren.

About Florida Southern College
Florida Southern is a four-year, private, co-educational liberal arts college affiliated with the United Methodist Church. The college offers more than 40 undergraduate majors and a master of business administration degree accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Located in Lakeland, Fla., the college is home to the largest, single-site collection of Frank Lloyd Wright architecture in the world. 

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