Walking into the food court at IU Southeast, one will find a quiet, smiling lady busy at work. This lady is Sue Platt.

When first meeting this quiet, smiling woman, one would not know the active life Platt has lived and is currently living.

Platt has not been a lifetime resident of Southern Indiana, but has lived in various areas of the world, including a period of time in Europe. 

Platt said that she was an army brat and spoke of living in northern Italy, approximately 60 miles from Venice on the Mediterranean Side. 

Platt is quite fluent in Italian. While in Europe, Platt and her family travel extensively to Germany and the Swiss Alps.

When Platt’s father left the army, the family settled in New Albany, where her father owned and ran a pallet company.   

Her first employment opportunity was working at the company delivering pallets to various companies in the area. 

Even after Platt’s father passed away, Platt and her brother continued on with the family business for two years.

Platt married Bob Platt and had two children, At that point Platt became a stay at home mom.

In Aug. 2008 found Platt beginning her life as a part of the food service team at IU Southeast.

Platt is very comfortable working in this area of work because of many years in the food service industry. 

Her journey in this area of work began when Platt and her 16-year-old daughter went to apply at A&W Root beer in 1986.

Both were hired and Platt stayed on as an employee with A&W for 7 years. 

That start at A&W, lead to several supervisory positions in the food service industry. One such supervisory position was with the Texas Roadhouse group as the corporate trainer.

As a corporate trainer, Platt would set up and train all serving staff and bartenders in each new restaurant that opened. The first was at the Texas Roadhouse located in the Greentree Mall in Clarksville, and Platt was on the ground level with its opening and training.

Platt also worked for Starbucks as 1st lead and up until being hired at IU Southeast, she was working as a bartender for Caesars.

“I enjoyed my position as bartender at Caesar, but the smoking atmosphere created a health problem for me,” Platt said.

Working in the Food Court area is an enjoyable opportunity for Platt, but Platt says she struggles at times with scheduling her 40 student employees and their classes.

“It is like a huge jigsaw puzzle.” Platt said. “I find it difficult at times filling the work schedule with all the different class schedules.” 

Delegating jobs to her employees is also a struggle for Platt.

“I am a hands-on person and am used to doing it myself.”  Platt said.

These are two areas that Platt knows she will soon be able to handle with complete confidence in the very near future.

Platt’s responsibilties include staffing the food court area, and also for the two coffee shops located on campus.

As far as Platt’s personal life, she said “besides trying to survive day to day,

I am trying to condition myself to run in the Mini-Marathon for the Ky. Derby and for Walk for Breast Awareness.”

Earlier in her life, Platt was a very health conscious individual.  

She watched her diet and was always very physically active, however the death of her husband caused Platt to be needed in other areas and she was not able to continue on with her physical activity and conditioning.

A gallbladder attack and surgery caused Platt to reconsider her eating style and physical conditioning. 

“I always tried to eat a very low-fat diet before, but after my gall bladder surgery, I am unable to eat fatty foods.” Platt said.

Her physical training consists of using a treadmill and joining the Louisville Healthclub. Platt also has incorporated weight training in her physical activity.

Platt is also waiting for her birth of her first grandchild in March.

Platt is the owner of 3 ½ acres in New Albany; so much of her spare time is maintaining her property, such as cutting grass with her new John Deer Tractor. 

Platt said she has lost 5 big oak trees on her property, so she was going to be very busy with the clean up from the winds of Ike.

By BARB HURST
Staff Writer
bhurst@ius.edu