Louise Plachta shares experiences as CMU liaison, first lady

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Louise Plachta says she will miss her relationship with CMU, especially
the students.
Plachta, undergraduate nontraditional student liaison,
resigned from her position after her husband, University President Leonard
Plachta, announced his resignation after almost nine years of serving
as CMU’s president.
However, Louise Plachta said she is confident the university
will continue to help nontraditional students.
“I think I at least gave a start to the recognition
to the fact that we have a growing number of nontraditional students,”
she said.
A nontraditional student is an undergraduate student
over the age of 25 either coming to college for the first time, or completing
a degree that was started years ago.
Part of her liaison role was to act as a go-between
for nontraditional female students and a national women’s organization
which helps with grants and loans to help female students meet education
costs.
Plachta said she could easily identify with the nontraditional
students because of her own experiences while getting her undergraduate
degree.
“I was a nontraditional student from the word go. It
took me 17 years to get my undergraduate degree and six years to get my
master’s degree,” she said. “But I’ve always had the support of my husband
and my family.”
Director of Student Life Sharon George will be taking
over the liaison position.
“In the past couple of years she has been instrumental
in helping to raise funds to furnish the nontraditional student resource
room. She has good rapport with them,” Plachta said.
Recognizing the needs of undergraduate nontraditional
students is important, she said, because they make up 11 percent of the
student population.
She and her husband moved from Alma to Mount Pleasant
in 1978 and she worked as a secretary at CMU for 13 years.
Plachta received her master’s of English degree in
1992 after her husband was named the university’s 11th president.
“When I got my master’s degree, the president gave
it to me,” she said.
Earning her master’s degree was important to her, because
she said writing is a passion of hers that she would like to focus on
more now that she has resigned from the university.
“My biggest love is creative writing and I would love
to get into creative writing more seriously,” she said.
“I don’t want to die without having written something
that I am proud of, whether it be a column or a short story.”
She would also like to read all the books she has always
wanted to read and take some refresher courses at CMU.
Although Plachta has nine years of experience as the
university’s first lady, she said she doesn’t have any advice for Monica
Rao, the incoming first lady.
“I wouldn’t presume to give advice to the incoming
president’s wife,” she said. “After all, she comes to CMU with prior experience
as the wife of a president of a community college and the chancellor of
a university.”
Some of her fondest memories of CMU, she said, will
be the many events she attended with her husband, like Homecoming.
She also remembers attending the first night game at
the Kelly/Shorts Stadium, and riding in a hot air balloon to commemorate
the event.
Being invited to the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe
reservation and being treated as an “elder” is also an experience Plachta
values.
“One of the fondest memories I have is being invited
to the reservation for a mini-powwow and dinner. We were treated as elders.
We Americans laugh at that, but then we were told being called an elder
is a title of respect. I’ve carried that with me,” she said.
“I’ve learned a lot about the Indian culture.”
Leonard Plachta’s presidency was a combined, team effort
between him and Louise Plachta, she said.
“I think that we have been very successful in bringing
the name of Central Michigan University to a lot of people who had not
known very much about it,” she said. “I think that we have helped to connect
many of our alumni, who may have lost touch with CMU.
“I’ve always lived by the credo that I want to leave
something better than I found it,” she said. “And I think that we are
leaving CMU in a way better than it was when he came into office.”
The people she has meet during her time at the university
is what she will miss the most.
“I’m going to miss the students. The staff has been
outstanding,” Plachta said.
“I’ve had so much support from everybody, from Dining
Services to Facilities Management,” she said.
“I have a real love affair with this university, with
the institution itself.”
She said she has become more aware of the legislative
process and the needs of university students.
“I don’t know if I could articulate everything that
I have learned, but certainly I have knowledge of what goes on.”