After Rodger Summers announced his decision to move from administration to teaching in December of last year, the search began for a new vice president for student affairs and the race has recently been narrowed down to four candidates.
The vice president for student affairs is responsible for the leadership and management of a multitude of student services on campus. The directors of these programs and academic offices ‘ which amount to some 190 professionals, including the dean of students ‘ will report to the next vice president.
While students, faculty and staff will have the opportunity to give input as to whom they feel should be hired, the ultimate decision will be reserved for President Lois B. DeFleur, as the vice president for student affairs is one of the five members of the president’s senior staff.
Candidates flew in from all over the East Coast to meet with Binghamton University students and faculty at open forums to talk about student affairs at BU.
The first candidate ‘ Frances D. Graham ‘ currently serves as the associate vice chancellor for student affairs at North Carolina Central University. Graham’s current position allows her to lead numerous committees and oversee large departmental budgets, helping her to gain a keen knowledge of student affairs. Her initiative in helping NCUU students is shown by her efforts in developing a Women’s Center on their campus.
Graham received her doctorate in educational policy studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her 12-page resume includes experience as the assistant vice provost for gender at North Carolina State University and the director of the Women’s Center at NCSU.
Graham hopes to focus on attracting a diverse student body.
‘This means seriously focusing efforts on mentoring, nurturing and modifying services and academic programs to engage all students,’ she wrote in a cover letter.
Terrence J. Hogan, a candidate from Ohio University, is currently the senior associate vice president and the dean of students there.
‘We’ve grown from 12,000 to 20,000 students in our Athens campus during my tenure here, yet have maintained a caring atmosphere focused on student success,’ he said.
Hogan has been at Ohio University since 1977 when he was majoring in radio and television communications as an undergraduate. Hogan remained to receive his doctorate in higher education administration and has been an instructor there since 1984, becoming the dean of students in 1998.
The third candidate, Charles B. Kenyon, is currently serving as the associate vice president for student affairs and dean of students at SUNY College at Buffalo. While Kenyon has similar qualifications to the other three candidates, he has also been involved with student affairs on a larger SUNY campus.
Kenyon received his Ed.D. in higher education from Harvard University in administration, specializing in negotiation and dispute resolution from Harvard School of Law. He has served SUNY Buffalo as the associate vice president for student affairs since 2000.
‘My educational achievements and professional experience provide evidence that I bring to this position the depth of experience required to fulfill the role of vice president for student affairs,’ he said in his cover letter.
The fourth and final candidate, who will be speaking on campus to students and faculty on Thursday, is Michael A. Gilbert. Gilbert is currently in his third year serving as the assistant vice president for campus student services at Pennsylvania State University.
Gilbert’s experience primarily lies within the realm of residential life. He was employed as the director of housing services for 10 years at the University of Massachusetts prior to his current position at Penn State. Gilbert received his Ed.D. in higher education policy from the University of Massachusetts in 2004.
‘I am especially proud of the completion of over $40 million of capital improvements and the development of a strategic plan ‘ to construct a new 864-bed residential complex,’ he wrote.
With renovations planned for Newing College and Dickinson Community, questions about his experience are expected to be asked when he arrives on campus Thursday.