The search for a replacement for the current Vice President of Student Affairs Jim Caswell required six months of evaluating applications, conducting interviews and committee discussion, but committee members say the hard work has paid off.
Yesterday, Lori S. White, currently the Associate Vice President of Student Affairs at the University of Southern California, was announced the new VPSA, effective July 1.
White, who has held student affairs positions at Stanford University and Georgetown University, will take over the responsibilities of student life programs including residence halls; women’s, multi-cultural and volunteer and leadership programs; judicial affairs; campus ministries; health and wellness programs; career services; the Hughes-Trigg Student Center and the Dedman Center for Lifetime Sports.
“Lori White brings to this position a remarkable background of student affairs experience, leadership in her profession, and research on topics relevant to student issues,” said President R. Gerald Turner in a press release.
“The quality of the campus experience is one of SMU’s greatest strengths in recruiting and retaining students. She is the perfect choice to build on that quality and keep us up-to-date in our development of students for leadership now and after graduation.”
White will also be an adjunct faculty member in SMU’s School of Education and Human Development. She earned an undergraduate degree in psychology and English from the University of California and a Ph.D. from Stanford University in education administration and policy analysis with emphasis in higher education. She also participated in Harvard University’s Management and Leadership in Education Program.
“I am delighted and very excited to become the vice president for student affairs at SMU,” White said in a press release.
“SMU has great students and strong leadership and is poised to become one of the premier institutions of the 21st century,” she said. “I look forward to the opportunity to work with faculty, staff, students, alumni and members of the Dallas community to continue to attract the best and brightest students from around the country and the world to SMU.”
According to Vice President for Executive Affairs Thomas Barry, who headed the search committee, “a VPSA has to have a passion for students and Lori clearly had that.” Barry believes that her personality and abilities will enable her to be an effective VPSA.
“She’s highly personable, and there’s no question she can deal with the media when there are sensitive issues to be dealt with.”
The process of finding a new Vice President of Student Affairs took at least six months, and began in July 2006. The first step is to hire a search consultant. Then a search committee is put together, and President Turner creates a job description. The search committee always has a couple student members. For this committee, seniors Taylor Russ and Paviel Chriss were chosen.
“They were excellent committee members and very mature,” Barry said. “They asked provocative questions. I was very proud of them.”
Next, the consultant uses his or her networking capabilities to find candidates, and the committee also advertises the positions in key places including the Chronicle of Higher Education.
There were 76 applications for the position. The committee looks at all of the applicants and makes a first cut, selecting 12 people to bring to a preliminary interview. At this point in the process, all of the candidates are kept confidential, because many don’t want it to be known that they are considering another job.
After the preliminary interview, three to five finalists are selected. For this position, there were three finalists, as two dropped out of the running. Each of the finalists then comes for a three-day interview process. After all the interviews, the search committee makes a recommendation to the President, who makes a final decision. According to Barry, White was the clear favorite of those who evaluated her.
“She was clearly the frontrunner with the search committee and with all of the people who evaluated her,” Barry said. “”In general there are always some differences of opinions, but it was clear without any doubt that she was the stand-out number one choice.”
As the announcement was being made, a memo was sent out to the search committee informing the members of the president’s decision and, according to Barry, responses have been very positive.
