SWT’s Supple receives grant for cancer research project

SAN MARCOS, TEXAS — A research project being undertaken by Southwest Texas State University President Jerome Supple has received financial backing from a private research and education foundation.

Supple learned recently that the Fetzer Institute of Kalamazoo, Mich., will contribute $10,000 toward his study of the effects of cancer on leaders and their roles in higher education.

He will complete his research assignment over a three-month period at the University of Limerick in Ireland. Robert Gratz, SWT vice president of academic affairs, will serve as acting president during Supple’s absence. Supple will return to SWT in July.

Supple became interested in his research topic in June 1997 when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He has conducted dozens of interviews with university presidents and chancellors to learn how a cancer diagnosis affects them and their leadership roles. He will analyze and organize his research findings while in Ireland.

Supple holds a doctorate in chemistry and was a faculty member and researcher prior to administrative appointments in the State University of New York System. He was with the SUNY System for 25 years before he assumed the SWT presidency in 1989.

In August 1999, Supple was appointed to a six-year term on the Prostate Cancer Advisory Committee of the Texas Department of Health.

The Fetzer Institute is a nonprofit private foundation that supports research, education and service programs exploring the relationships among body, mind and spirit. The institute has a special interest in how individuals and communities are influenced by the interactions among the physical, psychological, social and spiritual dimensions of life.