Despite facing $8 million worth of fallout from Oregon’s $846 million budget shortfall, the University is proceeding with plans to create a new administrative position: vice president for student affairs.
The new vice president will oversee departments ranging from the University Health Center to the Office of Financial Aid. According to Karen Sprague, chairwoman of the search committee, the new position will “represent the long-term best interests of students at the highest levels of the University administration.”
Associate Vice President for Student Affairs Anne Leavitt said creating the new position will give her a new boss.
“It’s essentially about uniting two reporting lines,” Leavitt said.
Currently Leavitt oversees the Health Center, the Counseling and Testing Center, the Office of Student Life, the EMU and University Housing. Her work with the nonacademic side of student life often brings her into close contact with Associate Vice President for Enrollment Services Jim Buch, who oversees the Office of Financial Aid, the Office of the Registrar, the Career Center and the Office of Admissions.
Under the current system, Leavitt reports to Vice President for Administration Dan Williams, and Buch reports to Provost John Moseley, but the establishment of the new position will allow Leavitt and Buch to cooperate more and report to one person.
A national search to fill the position began in January, and according to Cindy Liu, a senior associate with Gary Kaplan and Associates, the Pasedena-based firm conducting the search, the results should be presented by the committee’s next meeting on Monday.
Sprague said Oregon’s recent budget woes haven’t affected the plan to hire someone. She pointed out that a university is more than students and professors — there are numerous other programs on campus that make the college experience. The job of the new vice president will be to help coordinate many of those programs, a daunting task that requires strong leadership and team work skills.
“The position will require someone who can see the big picture,” she said.
Sprague said the exact cost of hiring someone with such vision has not been yet determined, but it will probably be more than $100,000 per year.
But ASUO President Nilda Brooklyn, who sits on the search committee, said the issue of expense was not a consideration for the committee.
“It’s an important question to ask,” she said. “But it was made clear at the very first meeting that this position was going through.”
More important than Brooklyn’s perspective, she said, is student input on the process. Committee members met with students in the Multicultural Center on Feb. 28 to discuss what qualities the committee should look for when filling the position. The committee will hold another meeting in the Multicultural Center at 3 p.m. Friday.