For the better part of 33 years, wherever Eastern Michigan
University has needed someone to make sure people got a
fair shake, Karen Simpkins got the call.
Simpkins has run training programs for foster parents,
helped students launch job searches, written the University's
code of conduct, created a professional development program
for graduate students, and put a decimated human resources
department back on its feet.
 |
FOR A JOB WELL DONE: Karen Simpkins (above,
left)
interim associate vice president for human
resources,
poses with Bernice Lindke, vice president
for student
affairs and enrollment management,
at the Gold
Medallion Awards in March. During the ceremony in
the Student Center Ballroom, Lindke announced
Simpkins would be retiring later this year. Simpkins
was given a glass sculpture as a show of appreciation
from the division. Simpkins will officially retire
July
6. |
Each of her jobs at EMU seems to have little to do with
the last one, or the next. But they've had everything to
do with making an impact on people's lives.
"She's a very informed and insightful student of organizations,
and she's a quick study," said Vice President for Advancement
Don Loppnow, who's known Simpkins since she was a graduate
assistant. "Her
adaptability and her commitment to students and to the
University are things I admire."
Simpkins, who'll retire as interim associate vice president
for human resources July 6, first came to EMU in 1969 as
a pre-med student. When she discovered she didn't like
science, she switched to psychology and sociology and,
after a year, she dropped out, unsure about what a college
education had to do with her life's direction.
When she told Patricia Ryan Warren, a sociology professor,
she was leaving school, Ryan Warren (who's now retired)
said, "I
hope you come back; you're talented. When you're ready,
just give me a call."
Simpkins worked in the Washtenaw County Controller's Office
for a year while she shopped for other jobs, but every
job she applied for required a bachelor's degree.
So Simpkins took Ryan Warren at her word and called her — on
New Year's Eve. When classes reconvened, Ryan Warren hired
Simpkins as a student employee in the Institute for the
Study of Children and Families
Working part-time at the Institute, Simpkins landed grant
money from the state and the University to fund a foster-parent
training program, then was hired part-time to work on the
project. Meanwhile, she finished her bachelor's degree
and earned a master's and a law degree. When the Institute's
grant ran out in 1986, Simpkins spent four months out of
work.
"It was a very different point in my life. My self-esteem
was totally tied into work," she said. " If I think of
anything in my career that shaped how I came back and approached
work, it was that four months...
"My mom got breast cancer, and I was able to spend all
this time with her. What I learned during that time was
what truly mattered in life, and that truly affects how
I manage."
Meanwhile, one of her colleagues from the Institute called
to let her know about a vacancy in the career center. Someone
was on medical leave and Simpkins was asked if she could
fill in.
The person on leave never came back, and Simpkins spent
six years helping students prepare to find jobs and put
together resumes. Her family teased her, because she'd
never actually created a resume for herself. But, it didn't
stop her from being promoted to associate director.
"She listens carefully to what people are dealing with,
and she wants to help them succeed with their work and
develop professionally," Loppnow said.
In 1996, then-vice president for student affairs Larry
Smith asked Simpkins to create and lead student judicial
services.
"It was another new career," Simpkins said. "My career
here has been defined by that. I've had all new careers.
What do I know about career services? Nothing. I'll go
learn. What do I know about judicial? Nothing, but I'll
go learn it."
Simpkins walked into the office in September 1996. She
had no secretary, reams of handwritten records and a code
of conduct that was 15 years old. Her first case was a
football player who was accused of assault. Her second
was a harassment case that, if she mishandled it, might
get her sued.
"It was a really quick learning curve," she said.
And, after those first three months, she hated it. Worse,
she knew she wasn't doing her best work and, over Christmas
break, she gave herself an ultimatum. Either go back and
do the job with all you've got, or get out.
Attitude adjusted, she went back to work and discovered
that the work she was doing was just as important in helping
people develop as what she'd done in career counseling.
She wrote a new code of conduct, a parental notification
policy and a lot of other documents that shaped the University.
"Going from career services, where I was working with
all these driven students, all of a sudden I was doing
a job where all these people were in trouble. I was dealing
with the police, thinking, 'Oh my gosh, this is so negative.'
Then I realized, as a student development person, I had
this opportunity."
Ninety-five percent of the students she saw had simply
made a dumb decision. She had the chance to intervene and
get them on the right track.
She recalled one student who came to visit her a few years
after an incident that should have gotten him thrown out
of school. At the time, something made her give him one
last chance.
"I really trusted my instincts about students," she said. "I
put him through hell. He had to do community service; he
had to get his grades up. He did everything and, a few
years later, he came to visit me in my office."
"Do you remember me?" he asked. "You should have thrown
me out, but you didn't, and I want you to know I just got
accepted to Duke (University) Medical School. And I wouldn't
have done that if you hadn't told me what a loser I was,
and that I'd better shape up and quit wasting my life."
"I don't know if those were my exact words," Simpkins
said.
"Maybe not," he told her, "But that was the message."
Though she'd come to love judicial services, colleagues
convinced Simpkins to apply for the vacant associate vice
president of student affairs position.
There, she created the BEST program — Basic
Employment Competencies Training — which helps
graduate students in student affairs develop skills that
ranged from goal setting to crisis management.
She considered retiring in 2006, but EMU wasn't ready
to let her go. Human Resources was on its fifth director
in as many years, and they needed someone with University-wide
credibility who could stabilize the department.
"I was able to say, 'You can't keep cutting us,' and they
believed me and trusted we were on the right track with
this group," Simpkins said. "I promised them I would give
them some time and extend my retirement (date), and I feel
we're in a really good spot now to turn it over to someone
else."
She'll continue to teach as an adjunct in leadership and
counseling. She'll do some human resources consulting.
She wants to travel, rekindle her glassblowing skills,
collect and sell more sports memorabilia, and learn Web
design. Her ever-present intellectual curiosity is definitely
not retiring. It's just changing venues.
"I've had these opportunities to hear nationally-known
speakers, gone to ROTC camp, been honorary football coach
and sat in on team meetings," she said. " Where else do
you go every day that you can constantly learn and have
your intellect challenged? That, for me, has been the best
part of this career."
