Finalists named in search for vice president for student affairs

Finalists named in search for vice president for student affairs

ANN ARBOR—The search committee for the position of vice president for student affairs at the University of Michigan has invited four finalists to begin meeting with members of the campus community over the next few weeks.

The finalists are: F. Javier Cevallos, vice chancellor for student affairs, University of Massachusetts-Amherst; John Lewis Ford, the Robert W. and Elizabeth C. Staley Dean of Students, Cornell University; E. Royster Harper, U-M interim vice president for student affairs; and Charles C. Schroeder, vice chancellor for student affairs, University of Missouri-Columbia.

The 17-member search committee has been working since the end of January to fill the position vacated by Maureen Hartford, who left in May 1999 to become president of Meredith College in North Carolina. The committee is chaired by Thomas E. Weisskopf, director of the Residential College, professor of economics and research scientist with the Center for Russian and East European Studies.

Cevallos, who also is a professor of Spanish, has served as vice chancellor for student affairs at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst since 1998. He also has been chair of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, faculty adviser to the provost, secretary of the Faculty Senate and director of the Summer Program in Spain. He has been active in the Modern Languages Association and was an American Council on Education (ACE) Fellow at Wesleyan University in 1996-97. He holds a B.A. degree from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez and earned his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Ford, a U-M graduate, has been dean of students at Cornell since 1992 and also is a professor in the Department of Policy Analysis and Management. His service at Cornell has included terms as acting director of the Sloan Program in Health Administration, chairman of the Department of Human Service Studies, and director of the Rural Health Research and Training Program, as well as chairing a number of campus committees. He also has been an ACE Fellow at the University of Chicago, the Robert Wood Johnson Faculty Fellow in Health Care Finance at Johns Hopkins University, and a visiting associate professor at the University of British Columbia. He received his B.A. from Boston University and an M.S.W., M.P.H. and Ph.D. from the U-M, teaching as a lecturer in the U-M School of Social Work in 1971-74.

Harper has been interim vice president for student affairs at U-M since
Schroeder was appointed vice chancellor for student affairs at the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1993 and he is an adjunct professor in educational leadership and policy analysis. His previous positions include visiting professor at Appalachian State University, vice president for student services at the Georgia Institute of Technology, vice president for student development at St. Louis University, dean of students and assistant professor of psychology at Mercer University, assistant to the dean of student life and director of men’s housing at Auburn University, director of counseling at Western New England College, and a counselor and instructor at Austin College. He has been active in the American College Personnel Association. Schroeder earned an Ed.D. degree from Oregon State University and holds M.A. and B.A. degrees from Austin College, which has given him its Distinguished Alumnus award.

Each of the candidates will meet with President Lee C. Bollinger, Provost Nancy Cantor and other senior U-M administrative officers, as well as a wide range of faculty, students and staff with a strong interest in Student Affairs. The visits began this week and will be completed before the end of September. The search committee then will present its recommendations to Bollinger, who plans to make a final decision on the new vice president for student affairs soon thereafter.

student affairsF. Javier CevallosNews and Information ServicesUniversity of Michigan