Members of the SMU faculty and staff gathered yesterday afternoon to honor and welcome the newly appointed Vice President of Student Affairs, Dr. Lori White and an administrator in the Division of Enrollment Services, Anthony Tillman.
SMU President R. Gerald Turner and his wife, Gail, received more than 100 faculty, staff and board members, alongside Dr. White and Tillman for a short reception in the Umphrey Lee ballroom.
“We are always excited to welcome someone especially involved in leadership, who supports the students,” said David Liner, a member of SMU’s department of risk management. “We want to welcome them to the team.”
White is originally from San Francisco and has worked at schools all over California, including San Diego State University, UC Irvine, UC Berkeley and most recently, the University of Southern California.
When Turner made his initial phone call to offer White the job, she explained, she expressed some apprehension over what she might be losing by moving from USC to SMU.
“Now what you go’n be losin’?” said White, doing her impression of Turner’s Southern-accented response.
White responded by saying 50-yard line football tickets in a stadium of 80,000 Trojan fans, while seated next to Snoop Dogg. Turner said he couldn’t promise a stadium of 80,000 Mustangs, or Snoop Dogg, but that she could have whatever seat she wanted in Ford Stadium, along with a trip to a bowl game.
In acceptance of Turner’s promise of SMU participation in a bowl game, White says she will work to “make sure that all the students with whom we work can achieve all of their hopes and dreams.”
An alumnus of Purdue University, Tillman most recently worked in Washington D.C. as a director for The College Board. Tillman’s main focus while working in the Division of Enrollment Services will be towards retention of students, in order to bring SMU to the next level, as an academic institution.
“SMU is poised to going from a really good institution to a really great institution,” said Tillman. “SMU is distinctly unique in all it has to offer.”
“It’s always good to have a chance to welcome people to campus,” said President Turner in his introductory announcements, in which he presented White and Tillman with SMU hooded sweatshirts and golf shirts. The new Vice President for Business and Finance Christine Casey will begin work at SMU on Sept. 3.
