The Dr. Rickert R. Althaus Endowed Scholarship in Political Science has been established through the Southeast Missouri University Foundation.

The scholarship was established by Dr. Rickert R. Althaus, professor of political science at Southeast, and Dr. Brenda Johnson, emerita professor of nursing at Southeast, who made a generous gift to establish the award.

The renewable scholarship will be awarded to an undergraduate student attending Southeast Missouri State University majoring in political science or a graduate student in the Master of Public Administration program. Recipients must be in good academic standing with an overall minimum 3.0 grade point average. The Department of Political Science, Philosophy and Religion Scholarship Committee will select the recipient.

Althaus joined the then Department of Political Science in 1980. His two main areas of emphasis are public administration and public policy. He has an undergraduate degree in agriculture, and much of his research and writing has dealt with agricultural policies and politics. His textbook chapter on Missouri state agricultural policy is found in Missouri Government and Politics, published by the University of Missouri Press. He teaches public administration, personnel administration, and nonprofit management at the graduate level and also advises students in the department’s Master of Public Administration program. He enjoys working with students outside the classroom, and has advised several student organizations over the years, including the Political Science Club, the Model United Nations group and the College Democrats. He is a former interim department chair, is a longtime and current member of the Faculty Senate and has been active in University’s quality improvement initiatives as well as several other campus committees. He supervises the internship program in the Department of Political Science, Philosophy and Religion in the Missouri General Assembly. Althaus plans to retire in May 2018.