9/10/2003

Contact: K.E. Schwab  -- 724-738-2199;  e-mail: karl.schwab@sru.edu

FAMED NEW JERSEY PRINCIPAL JOE CLARK TO LECTURE AT SRU SEPT. 17

           SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – Joe Clark, the former New Jersey high school principal who has made a difference in the lives of countless students and administrators across the nation, been the subject of a feature film, and was spotlighted in both Time magazine and on CBS’ “60 Minutes” will be the featured speaker at Slippery Rock University Sept. 17.

          Clark’s free 8 p.m. address, open to the public, is sponsored by SRU’s University Program Board. The lecture will be held in the Multi-Purpose Room of the University Union.

           His lecture will share his strategies and success stories with regional high school students, college students studying to be teachers, other SRU students as well as university faculty and the regional community.

           Educated at William Paterson College, Seton Hall University and both Columbia and Rutgers universities, Clark is a former Army drill instructor. He took over as principal at Eastside High School in Paterson, N.J., in 1984 vowing to change school operations and student behaviors. He made good on his promise and two years later was named one of the nation’s 10 “Principals of Leadership,” the same year the state’s governor declared his former raucous institution a “model school.”

          Warner Brothers produced the feature-length film titled “Lean On Me,” with Morgan Freeman playing Clark, showing how his stern, yet compassionate style, mixed with an abundance of pride, could turn students’ lives around.

           He has also served as director of the Essex County Detention, a juvenile detention center in Newark. N.J., and is the author of “Laying Down the Law.”

PN, WPN, PG, PT, PR, AA

EDITOR’S NOTE: A photo of Mr. Clark is available at www.sru.edu (click on the Joe Clark news release to download.)