The University administration is gearing up to hire a new vice president for finance and administration; interviews concluded April 13.
Senior Vice President and Vice Provost John Moseley told the University Senate on Wednesday that a decision will be announced within the next two weeks. Moseley will make the final decision, as the new VPFA will report to him.
The new VPFA reflects an administrative reorganization following the announced retirements of three top-level administrators: Vice President for Administration Dan Williams, Vice President for Academic Affairs Lorraine Davis and Moseley. The VPFA will serve as the chief financial officer and will have the responsibilities of the current vice president for administration.
Moseley said many universities combine administrative and financial duties into one position.
“We’re moving toward a more traditional administrative structure,” he said.
The search committee, headed by Vice Provost for Research and Graduate Studies Richard Linton, narrowed the candidates down to four finalists, who were interviewed on campus during the past two weeks. The candidates included three from across the country and one from the University.
The search was conducted with the help of Isaacson, Miller, an executive search firm. The firm helped design the profile for the new position, which summarized the charge of the new VPFA.
“The VPFA will be a key figure in the next generational shift of leadership at the institution,” the profile says. “The VPFA will enhance the University by integrating separate organization units into one operation defined by the strength of bridges built internally and externally across the academic and non-academic units.”
One of the main challenges the new VPFA will face as chief financial officer is the increasingly dire financial situation — state appropriations for the University have declined dramatically in the past two decades while enrollment continues to increase.
“The VPFA will be called upon to continue the university’s tradition of finding creative solutions to the pressing financial issues facing the UO,” the profile states. “This will involve creatively managing enrollment and tuition levels, ensuring efficient operations of the campus and shaping and realizing a vision for how the UO can best take advantage of operational innovations, capital projects and real estate opportunities.”
The Emerald interviewed the four finalists: Cleve McDaniel, Laura E. Hubbard, Lynne C. Schaefer and Frances L. Dyke.
Cleve McDaniel
McDaniel serves as the vice president for the Educational Consulting Foundation, a higher-education consulting firm. As the vice president, he has consulted with many campuses in “budgeting and organizational
restructuring efforts,” according to his resumé.
Previously, McDaniel worked as the vice chancellor for administration and finance at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs and held a variety of administrative positions at two other institutions.
McDaniel said he misses the “ambient campus environment” and that he hopes to get back to it soon.
He said he applied for the position because he believed it was a good match for his skills and experience.
“The University of Oregon is unique in its degree of collaboration,” he said of the administration. “That is my style. I really emphasize collaboration and honest and open discussions. Collaboration is the key, and that’s how I approach my management.”
As for the administrative integration, McDaniel said he would focus on making “it efficient and affective.”
“One of the first things I’d do is to meet with key people across campus, and with that I’d build a plan of action,” he said. He added that he has worked to build new administrative units at other campuses before.
McDaniel said he has worked extensively with other universities to develop new funding strategies and this experience lends itself well to the new position.
In pursuing private funding sources, McDaniel said it’s important to remain conscious of the University’s mission.
“We need to do things that maintain our culture, maintain our integrity, maintain our vision as an institution,” he said.
McDaniel said he would focus on increasing the Oregon endowment to create more scholarships and increase accessibility.
Laura E. Hubbard
Hubbard is the assistant vice president for administration at the University of Idaho in Moscow. She has held a variety of positions at the University of Idaho, including serving as the interim vice president for finance and administration two years ago.
Previously, she worked in a variety of administrative roles at Washington State University.
Hubbard said her administrative style is a good match for the position because of the “flexible” nature of the University mission.
“My approach is that I don’t care where the boxes fall on the organization chart as much as do we understand what we’re trying to do,” she said. “It’s a culture I’m used to working with and am very comfortable working in.”
Hubbard said “finding new funding strategies” will be among the VPFA’s most pertinent challenges.
“They will have to look at how to fund the University’s needs now and into the future,” she said. “They’ll be looking at diversifying the funding portfolio the University has.”
However, Hubbard added that in finding new funding sources, the University will have to remain vigilant in not compromising its mission.
“How you’re being funded is going to affect who you feel accountable to,” she said. “Ultimately, the University needs to decide where it wants to be and where it wants to go. … Then the funding that the University pursues needs to line up with that direction.”
Hubbard said in looking at cutting programs, the administration should examine both sides of the access issue.
“We tend to think of access as what you have to pay,” she said. “But another aspect of access is the program you want available or whether it takes you a year or two longer to finish your degree because the programs are so sparsely spread.”
“That’s why it’s so important to have a dialogue about that,” she said.
Lynne C. Schaefer
Schaefer most recently served as vice president for finance and administration at Oakland University in Rochester, Mich., a post she left at the end of 2004. Previous to that, she worked in a variety of administrative roles at Wayne State University in Detroit and for the Michigan Department of Treasury.
In an e-mail, Schaefer described herself as a “team-builder,” and she believes this characteristic would be key in the integration of the new administrative unit.
“I am also an advocate for the kind of collegial, consensus-building environment that the University has developed over the years,” she said. “I believe in shared governance and am quite comfortable operating in such an environment.”
Schaefer also explained how she would approach the administrative integration.
“My vision for the financial and administrative operations of the University is (to) provide the human, financial and physical infrastructure necessary to support top-quality academic programs and support for students,” she said. “These departments serve the University’s core mission of teaching, research and service.”
Schaefer said she will manage the financial challenges by tightening up the budget and finding new sources of revenue.
“It is a tough balancing act to make sure the University has the resources to maintain high-quality academic programs and yet not to price education out of reach for our students,” she said. “My own approach is to strive to make the budget as tight as it can be, reduce costs where possible, hold the line on increases where possible and find additional sources of revenue.”
Nonetheless, Schaefer said she expects tuition and fees to remain a primary source of revenue.
Schaefer added that partnerships
with the private sector are extremely valuable.
“Staying in close touch with business, industry, government and the public in general is a great way to make sure that the University and its programs remain relevant to those we serve,” she said.
She added that the University should be careful to maintain its role as a public institution.
“(The VPFA will) play a very important stewardship role in safeguarding the public’s investment in the University, making sure that funds provided to the University from the state, students and their parents, donors, government, business and others are spent appropriately and for the purposes intended,” she said.
Frances L. Dyke
Dyke is the associate vice president for budget and finance at the University. She has also worked as the director of the Business Office and has held a number of other positions with financial duties within the University.
In terms of administrative integration, Dyke said the administration is already run fairly efficiently.
“One thing is we can provide better services to the University by having these units work together,” she said. “I think we can optimize the service we provide and maybe provide new services with collaborative thinking.”
Dyke added that the new administrative structure will have to be strong enough “to carry us through the next 10 or 15 years.”
She added that she would meet with key administrators to see how the administration might be better run and increase the amount of workforce training. Communication, she said, would be critical.
Dyke said she would rather not see programs cut in light of dire financial times.
“In tight financial times you have to think about all the options,” she said. “We’d have to cut programs deeply, and that really changes the nature of the education you can get.”
Dyke also wants to seriously examine the accessibility issue.
“I think there are students that we have priced out, and we need to deal with that,” she said.
She added that in pursuing private funding sources, the University should keep board members “well informed of what the mission of the University is and to have them buy into our ethics.”
“(We need) to get them to be real partners in how we think about public education, and it’s their job to make sure people are on the same page.”

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