Admin fills vacancies

June 26, 2006 —

Several current SVSU staff members will be filling vacancies within the administration next month.

Don Bachand will step into the Vice President of Academic Affairs position occupied by Robert S.P. Yien for the past 28 years, and he has announced two new appointments in the Office of Academic Affairs, effective July 1. Clifford Dorne will serve as Associate Vice President for Program Development and Graduate Recruitment, and Deborah Huntley has accepted the position of interim Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs.

Dorne will provide support for the marketing of graduate programs and for the recruitment and retention of graduate students while Huntley will be responsible for assessing academic programs and overseeing grants. Both also will retain their committee assignments and generally assist the Office of Academic Affairs.

In the College of Arts and Behavioral Sciences, Mary Hedberg will serve as interim dean and Joni Boye-Beaman will be assistant dean. Both appointments take effect July 1 and are for the 2006-07 academic year. The search for a permanent dean will resume this fall.

"I am very pleased that these highly qualified people have agreed to serve SVSU in these important positions," Bachand said in a release.

For the past six years, Dorne, a professor of criminal justice, has served as associate dean of the College of ABS. He currently chairs the General Education Committee and is coordinator of the Crisis Management Intervention Center, and previously chaired the criminal justice department and coordinated the Master of Arts in Administrative Science program.

A professor of chemistry, Huntley served as acting assistant dean for the College of Science, Engineering, and Technology from 2001 to 2004 and has been a member of the University's strategic planning task force and academic program assessment advisory board.

Hedberg joined the SVSU history faculty in 1993 and previously served as department chair. Since 2002, she has worked in the Office of Academic Affairs as an assistant vice president, and most recently as Associate Vice President for Academic Planning and Assessment. During that time, she coordinated SVSU's accreditation with the Higher Learning Commission. She also has chaired the curriculum and policy committee and the graduate committee.

Boye-Beaman, a professor of sociology, has taught at SVSU since 2000. She served as coordinator of the Master of Arts in Administrative Science program for the past five years, and previously chaired the sociology department. Boye-Beaman was director of the Social Sciences Research Center at Wayne State College (Neb.) from 1997 to 2000.

Stephen Kazar began his role as Special Assistant to the President for International Programs on June 5. His primary responsibilities will include recruiting international students and coordinating programs for SVSU students and faculty to study and teach internationally. Additionally, an international student advisor will be hired for the Office of International Programs and in the English as a Second Language program, an assistant director and a specialist will be hired.

The SVSU Web site will have a new emphasis as well, focusing primarily on communication with current and prospective students. As a result, responsibility for the site will move to the Division of Student Services and Enrollment Management from the Office of University Communications and Jason Swackhamer, Director of Web Communications, will move into Student Services and Enrollment Management.

Finally, SVSU is searching for a director of the Student Life Center, an assistant director of the Student Life Center, an assistant director of Career Planning and Placement, and a resident director.