During his time as interim director of Recreation Services, Mike Buck's goal was to show the university that he had what it took to become the next director. His endeavor became a success when he was offered the position on July 29.

"My intention when I accepted the interim position was to not only be a candidate, but to become the next director here," Buck said. "I was going to do everything possible in my interim time to prove to the university that I was the right person for that job."

Immediately after being assigned the position, Buck got to work by creating plans to replacing the the intramurals fields, which was completed this summer, and to create a high ropes course, which is expected to be finished toward the end of the fall semester.

"We started looking at what are our biggest needs," Buck said. "The biggest thing we hear from our students are the conditions of our intramurals fields. They haven't been touched since they first went in when I was a student back in 1997-1998. We saw a need, and we addressed it, and I think the students will see the benefits of that in the next few months when they start playing on the fields."

Buck quickly applied for the director position, along with five other applicants, when the search began this past summer. He started his career with recreation services in 1995 as a student worker and has since served as a graduate assistant in intramurals and as the assistant director of Business Management. He felt that his 16 years of experience would be an asset to the department.

"I've worked under three directors at this institution, and each of those individuals have taught me things that I use today," Buck said. "I've learned so much by watching how they've operated and how they've managed. The mixture of those three individuals has created what I do today with my staff. Whether it be good or bad, these are the things that I use to manage, and so I would say that 16 years worth of just watching and learning is very beneficial."

Eric Redinger, assistant director of facilities, said that a main concern during the search for the new director was whether or not the candidates would consider the students.

"We did not want somebody who was just going to come in here, use this as a step and kind of climb the backs of our students and then leave," Redinger said. "We wanted someone who actually cared about the university, cared about the community, cared about the students here and was willing to stay and really help out our students."

Dr. Bruce Skinner, assistant vice president for Student Success and director of Residence Life, said that Buck's experiences within Recreation Services made him a good candidate.

"He also has first hand experience of being the person at Southeast that was putting the programs on, and so when we get to things like, 'How do we do intramurals?' He's done it, and he's done it here at Southeast," Skinner said.

Buck officially was offered the position in July and since then has made other improvements. He has started a student recreational advisory committee to help make changes within the department, and he has developed a wellness program for students and employees.

"I think that [the students] will find that their voice is not only heard more now than it was in the past, but the direction that they actually want us to go in is the direction we will go in," Buck said.

Redinger believes that Buck will continue to keep the students' ideas and concerns for the department in mind.

"If I was going to say one thing about Mike that I think sums it up, it is that Mike firmly believes that the outside of the building says Student Recreation Center, so he keeps that in mind with every decision he makes. He thinks 'How does this affect our students?' and 'What will they think of this?'" Redinger said.