Changes at Tabor leave big hole
Staff writer
Tabor College is losing two staff and three faculty members.
The psychology department will lose one full-time and one part-time professor.
"This is going to leave a big hole in terms of knowledge and how they deal with students," said Howard Keim, vice president of academic affairs and student development. "They are going to be missed."
Heath Marrs, professor of psychology, has been at Tabor since 2000. He has resigned to take a teaching position in the psychology department at Fort Hays State University. Sociology professor Alicia Hughes-Jones, who has been at Tabor since 1989, has resigned her part-time position due to health reasons.
Tabor is in the process of finding new instructors for these positions.
As far as a deadline for hiring, Keim said Tabor plans to hire someone as soon as possible. "We want students and faculty to know we have somebody."
Lauren Lilly who has been at Tabor since 2001, has resigned from the mathematics and computer science department. He and wife Linda are planning to move to Washington.
Along with the resignation is a change in the co-op arrangement for this position between Tabor, Bethel and McPherson Colleges. McPherson is withdrawing from the co-op, but Tabor and Bethel will continue to share a mathematics and computer science instructor.
Randall Hess, of Sterling, has been hired to replace Lilly. Hess most recently was an information technology engineer at JACAM Chemicals in Sterling. He moved there from Indiana, where he worked at Raytheon in information management technology. Hess also taught at Indiana Wesleyan.
"With losing the McPherson connection, we needed to make sure we had someone with computer technology knowledge. The demand for someone with computer science and technology experience outweighed the importance of math."
Hess will be teaching lower level math courses and a variety of computer science classes.
Staff members leaving Tabor are Herb Wiebe, admissions counselor and assistant men's soccer coach, and Lisa Friesen, women's resident director, student activity board sponsor, and yearbook sponsor.
Wiebe plans to continue as the assistant soccer coach but will be pursuing his master's degree in psychology at Wichita State University. He has been in the admissions department since graduating two years ago.
Friesen is anxious for new challenges.
"It's been safe and comfortable here, but I'm ready to move on."
Friesen has worked at Tabor since graduating four years ago and will be moving to Lawrence.
Chemistry professor, Bruce Heyen, who resigned earlier to take a position at Goshen College in Indiana, has reversed his decision and will remain at Tabor.
"The timing was good, and it was a good opportunity, but there were some things that I just wasn't ready to give up," said Heyen. "After the decision was made, I didn't have peace. Then we were worried it wasn't reversible."
Heyen has been named chair of the chemistry department.
"He's an all-around great faculty member, and has contributed to the success of our students," said Keim.
