109 Patterson Hall, Dec. 8th, 11:00 AM
Colleen Cooke in her Patterson Hall office Friday, December 8th, 2017 (Photo by Joshua Kellem)
Parks, Conservation, & Recreat. Therapy. professor Dr. Colleen A. Cooke, 58 and originally from Poughkeepsie, New York, has been at Slippery Rock University (SRU) for 21 years, possessing over 30 years as an educator and practitioner. Cooke came to SRU for college, and she landed her first recreational therapy job in Pittsburgh, working with older adults in a long-term care facility. Cooke graduated from Duchess Community College in 1982 with an associates degree in recreation leadership, and graduated from SRU in 1984 with a bachelors degree in Parks & Rec (Rec Therapy option).
Colleen Cooke's degree from SRU (Photo by Joshua Kellem)
In addition, Cooke graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a masters degree in Educational Counseling in 1989, and graduated with a doctorate degree in Health Care Education from Nova Southeastern University in 2002.
Colleen Cooke's degree from University of Pittsburgh (Photo by Joshua Kellem)
Colleen Cooke's degree from Nova Southeastern University (Photo by Joshua Kellem)
Cooke has worked at Sewickley Valley Hospital, nor Harris Valley as a community outreach specialist and therapeutic recreation specialist, Allegheny Valley Counseling Center as a coordinator of training and social rehabilitation and UMPC Braddock as a clinical supervisor.
After working in Pittsburgh for some time in 1997, Cooke filled a night teaching position within the Recreational Therapy department, and was able to turn the opportunity into a full-time position. Throughout her time at SRU, Cooke was an adviser for Slippery Rock Women's Rugby and co-adviser for Rock Out. Now settled in SRU, Cooke resides in West View with her partner of almost 20 years Janet, being illegally married in 2005 in Shady Side, Pittsburgh at St. Andrew Luthern. Legally, the couple was married December 2013 in New York. Cooke has a son, Max, and daughter, Dara.
Colleen Cooke and her wife Janet (Photo by Joshua Kellem)
Outside of the classroom, Cooke served on Board of Directors of American Therapeutic Recreation Association as Chapter Affiliate Council Chairperson, the Executive Committee of SRU Association of Pennsylvania College and University Faculty (APSCUF), having served as Vice President as well, and was the chairperson of Gender Issues and Social Justice Committee of SRU-APSUF for several years. In addition, Cooke was elected to the Board of Directors of National Council for a Therapeutic Recreation Certification and Chair-Elect. Cooke was a founding member of SRU’s President’s Commission on LGBT Issues and Commission on Disability Issues, and is currently seeking certification as a Humor Professional through the Association of Applied and Therapeutic Humor. Cooke enjoys reading, golf, guitar, fishing, good humor; playing with pets (two dogs, three cats), watching CNN, Survivor, Big Brother, and politics. In fact, Cooke was elected delegate to the Democratic National Convention when Barack Obama ran for president.
In 2017, Cooke was appointed to be one of the 13 representatives on the Presidential Search committee as a faculty member, being appointed by APSCUF after Cheryl Norton announced she was retiring December 2016, effective July 2017. On October 6th 2017, the final two candidates, Dr. Bruce Murphy, the current president at Nicholls State University, and Dr. Amir Mohammadi, SRU’s vice president for finance, were set to be sent to the board of governors for consideration to be SRU’s next president until fellow committee member Robert Taylor accused two other committee members of having a conflict of interest in the decision on who to recommend, as Molly Mercer, the university executive on the committee, and Scott Albert, and at-large member of the committee, both work directly under Mohammadi in the office of finance and administrative facilities staff, respectively, according to The Rocket. In an email, Cooke said I must tell you - and insist - that there was absolutely NO conflict of interest with two committee members. That was, in my opinion, an effort to sabotage the search process on the part of one member of the committee who is also on the Council of Trustees.
After Taylor’s remarks, a roll call vote to send to send the final two candidates to the board of governors took place. The end result was a 5-5 vote, meaning the final two candidates were not forwarded. According to Cooke, Taylor had an agenda to make sure Mohammadi was not SRU's next president, stating before Mohammadi was revealed as one of the final two candidates Taylor told the committee 'you better not bring Mohammadi to campus, it'll be bad'. In addition, Cooke said Taylor was absent during Mohammadi's interview, and that he was perpetually late to other candidates' interviews as well. According to Cooke, Taylor had it out against Mohammadi well before the October 6th meeting. You can watch Cooke explain Taylor's behavior throughout the search process here.
After the 5-5 vote, two committee members accused of having a conflict of interest willingly decided to not be a part of the committee, moving forward. In addition, Amanda Nichols and Susan Elwell, who served as the appointed non-instructional union and alternate respectively, declined to continue in the search process, according to The Rocket, and Lisa Holmes, who served in the alumni position of the committee, will also not continue. At a November 20th meeting all but one vacancy was filled on the committee.
SRU's Council of Trustees meeting for their quarterly business meeting Friday, December 8th, 2017 (Photo by Joshua Kellem)
Committee member Robert Taylor and a few other committee members pushed for Student Government Association (SGA) Vice President of Campus Outreach Dallas Kline to be the final committee member, but ultimately it was decided through a vote the final member would be Janet Sargert. As of December 8th, all vacancies on the committe have been filled.
While the search is back on, there's not a timetable on when SRU will have a new president.
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