Until a month ago, Rick Clark awoke daily at 2 a.m. to deliver newspapers. For the average paperboy, that is far from unique, but Clark wasn’t the average paperboy. For one thing, he is 51 years old.

Clark is better known around campus as the director of University Programming and Activities. He works with his staff to provide entertainment for students on campus, advises student organizations like the Student Association and Campus Activities Board and helps NIU put on events like Homecoming and Springfest.

Clark especially loves his involvement with students.

“I really enjoy working with the students,” he said. “That’s why I am in higher education. I enjoy being around students and watching them grow and learn. It thrills me to watch a freshman coming in naive and unsure of themselves, and by the time they graduate, they think they have all the answers to the world crisis.”

Clark, who came to NIU in 1986 and rose to his position in 1998, doesn’t enjoy all of his involvement with students. He is in charge of adjudication of student organizations.

“I don’t care for that part of the job. When I have to reprimand a group or suspend a group, it’s not fun for me because I want to see students grow and have a good time and develop their skills. Whenever I have to go in and be punitive with anybody, I certainly don’t enjoy it,” he said. “Keeping our office operating is also a tough job. We are responsible for doing a lot of things, with these budget cuts as of late, it’s making it very difficult to get some of the things we would like to accomplish done.”

Bertrand Simpson, associate director of University Programming and Activities, said Clark does a good job overcoming such obstacles.

“He’s honest, dedicated, fair-minded and hard-working,” he said. “He’s done a difficult job very well under the circumstances. He should be proud that he works to continually protect the student’s interests.”

Through the course of his job, Clark has met a lot of famous people such as entertainer Nelly, but he doesn’t see why who he has met is a big deal.

“To me, it’s like meeting an average person off the street,” he said. “I don’t put much stock in them because they can sing or because their face is plastered all over the news as being someone that is better than me or you. To me, they are just another individual.”

Instead, Clark takes a great deal of pride in his work with campus organizations such as his work with the Northern Leadership Institute, which develops students into strong leaders.

Sumiko Keay, a secretary at University Programming and Activities, said that Clark is surprisingly quiet for someone in his position, but gets the job done.

“He’s actually a pretty quiet person,” she said. “Yes, he still does a good job running the office.”

For the past 13 years, Clark had supplemented his income by waking up early each morning and delivering the Chicago Tribune. He had to quit because of an aching back and lack of time for his family, which includes Yvonne, his wife of 26 years, and three grown children.

He prefers his director job to the paper route by a landslide.

“This is head and shoulders better,” he said. “This is far more rewarding because I am working with students. When you have an alum come back and talk to you and tell you how well they are doing and show me pictures of their family, because of all the advice I might have given them or the encouragement I provided, it makes it all worth while for me.”

Clark advises students to take special care to savor every minute of their college experience before entering the real world.

“Students need to enjoy their time here at NIU,” he said. “They need to enjoy themselves by getting involved outside of the classroom. It’s funny, I was just talking to two alums yesterday who recently graduated about how they wish they just had enjoyed their college experience more than they did because now that they are in the nine to five rut life stinks.”