Next year the only professional political scientist on campus will be leaving our numbers to head to Johnson State College.
According to David Plazek, budgetary issues and administrative decisions made last school year forced him to start looking at other places for a more secure position.
“The position wasn’t safe, so I had to start looking. I have a family to feed; coincidentally Johnson was looking for somebody with exactly my qualifications,” said Plazek.
The political science position is going to be phased out at Lyndon State College, ultimately allowing a criminologist to be hired. This decision was made because of the new criminal justice major beginning at LSC.
The position opened at JSC was an international relationships and comparative politics teaching position.
Plazek’s specialty is in international relations, “and so,” he said, “it was a perfect fit.”
“My real love is teaching, so these are smaller schools and I get to know people’s names, get to know faces and I get to provide services and really help students,” said Plazek.