A University of Nebraska graduate student is writing a "book" on new Millsaps President Frances Lucas-Tauchar. It may not make The New York Times best-seller list, but Shari Clarke's doctoral dissertation may become must reading for America's higher education family.

Clarke, 41, who's also a University of Nebraska administrator, will take 10 months to research her subject before she pens the profile on Lucas-Tauchar. Completion of a thesis is a requirement so she can receive a doctorate in higher education in 2002. Clarke said she selected a subject that "will be very interesting . . . I'm very interested in women's issues"

State education leaders praise her idea and are anxious to see what she says about Lucas-Tauchar, 43, daughter of retired University of Southern Mississippi President Aubrey Lucas.

"I'd love to read it," said Alcorn State University President Clinton Bristow Jr. "I'm very impressed with (Lucas-Tauchar). She brings alot of new insights to the presidency in a changing society."

The thesis will serve a second important purpose for Clarke, an Ohio native and, since 1998, special assistant to the University of Nebraska president for diversity and equity.

"It's to advance the literature on women in higher education, to advance the knowledge base," she said Friday from her office on the Lincoln campus.

Clarke said she came up with the idea after attending an education conference with Lucas-Tauchar in San Antonio last January. Lucas-Tauchar was one of the leaders at the retreat that attracted several college presidents and former presidents, including Aubrey Lucas, one of the speakers. A former senior vice-president for student life at Emory University in Atlanta, Lucas-Tauchar earlier this year was selected the first woman president in Millsaps' 110-year history.

Clarke's doctoral thesis is titled "Frances Lucas-Tauchar: A Portrait of Leadership and Motivation for Success in Higher Education Administration."

"It flattered me greatly, of course," Lucas-Tauchar said.

The final product - some 200 to 300 pages long - will trace the history of her career and go back to her childhood growing up in Mississippi, the daughter of a longtime president of USM and, earlier, Delta State University. Lucas-Tauchar rose up through the academic ranks after serving in student affairs posts at her alma mater, Mississippi State University, and Baldwin-Wallace College in Ohio.

Clarke's report will look at the triumphs, but also touches on some mistakes along the way. "All of us wish there were things we could do over," said Lucas-Tauchar. "I'm always willing to share lessons learned."

Clarke says she will spend time interviewing Lucas-Tauchar and observe her as she tackles leadership tasks on the Jackson campus. Making plans to attend her April 6 inauguration, Clarke will get the opportunity to talk with a number of influential people in the Millsaps president's life, including her parents. She will collect videotaped presentations featuring Lucas-Tauchar during significant events in her career. Her profile of Lucas-Tauchar as a college president and full-time mother with two young children will note that few women hold leadership positions in American higher education.

"Women are not only disproportionately under-represented in higher education, they are over-represented at the lower ranks and conspiciously missing from administration," Clarke said in an outline describing the significance of her project.

Reports show gains for women in leadership roles on campus in recent years. Since 1986, the percentage of women college presidents has doubled from 9.5 percent to 19 percent. In 1984, 1.1 percent of the women in American higher education were employed either as deans or any position above that.

Millsaps students say Lucas-Tauchar deserves to be the focus of a new study. Since succeeding retired 22-year president George Harmon on July 1, she's making a difference, they say.

"She's definitely a good role model," said senior Melinda Bott, 20, of Bunkie, La. "She's an inspiration to females on campus." Bott, a theater major with a role in the campus production of A Doll's House performed over the weekend, sees the new Millsaps president in another light. Lucas-Tauchar has become a stage mom because her daughter Anna Catherine has a role in the production.

"It's amazing to see her with her kids," Bott said. "Her daughter has so much energy backstage." And so does the new president, who finds time for daily power walks around campus to stay in touch with faculty, staff and students

"She's a really together person. She's really down to earth," Bott said.

Her new higher education colleagues in Mississippi also feel Lucas-Tauchar is worthy of being the focus of a dissertation.

"She's a very, very impressive lady," said Mississippi University for Women President Clyda Rent. "She's a great topic. She's very bright." Rent, who became MUW's first woman president in 1989 at a Columbus school that dates back to 1884, said Lucas-Tauchar possesses a "great sense of humor" like her father.

Lucas-Tauchar said having a good sense of humor is an attribute that's come in handy over the years. Asked to identify some of her "great lessons learned," Lucas-Tauchar didn't hesitate. "Never take yourself too seriously, no matter what is going on."

Lucas-Tauchar didn't always aspire to be a college president. In the 1970s, she worked as a legislative intern in Washington under U.S. Sen. John Stennis, D-Miss., and, at first wanted to be a lawyer. She quickly changed her mind. "I was far too tender-hearted to be in a political environment."

A former youth minister at First United Methodist Church in Magee when she attended Mississippi State, Lucas-Tauchar also considered being a minister. After pondering a full-time vocation as a "community servant" (she's still involved, working on Habitat for Humanity homes in Jackson neighborhoods), she went to graduate school at the University of Alabama in her early 20s. She decided her calling was higher education and had ambitions to become a college president.

Clarke says she found, after initial research, that Lucas-Tauchar is "doing a great job. I knew she would be so dynamic."