Recently demoted director of enrollment management Victoria Valle is slated to be reassigned to Interim Provost Don Rice’s office.
Valle, who was removed from her position Friday by freshman Chancellor Rita Cheng, would focus on restructuring the provost’s office. Her responsibilities would not involve enrollment in anyway.
Space is being made for her in McLafferty Annex.
Speculation on-campus was Valle’s “reassignment” was a nice way for the chancellor’s office to put her in a back room somewhere just before being released. The feeling amongst the administration is Valle knows her field and still has a lot to contribute to the university. It was the way the enrollment office was managed that did her in.
By the way, Brandon Weisenberger wrote a great piece in today’s Carbondale Times about Valle’s demotion and how campus officials may be responding. Check it out.
John Nicklow, the associate dean of the College of Engineering, will take over as the interim assistant provost for Enrollment Management, said SIUC Chancellor Rita Cheng.
Nicklow will fill the vacancy left after the previous vice chancellor of enrollment management, Victoria Valle, was reassigned last week.
Nicklow said he would begin immediately at enrollment office.
From what I gather, Nicklow is respected and admired by the faculty. But what exactly does an engineering professor know about enrollment?
Nicklow wants Enrollment Management to develop “a strong synergy” with Saluki First Year.
“Increasing opportunities for engagement with students has to be one of our focus areas,” Nicklow said. “We have some good programs started, such as Saluki First Year, where we really have done a good job with programming and developing seminars, with letting students know that they are part of this community.”
Those efforts, and others, “help students feel they are part of something.”
“That can help anybody be successful, when you make them part of a team,” he said. “It’s when they feel left out or alone, that’s when we need to intervene before potential problems occur. Retention continues to be an untapped opportunity. If we can dramatically affect retention and success rates, we will have a major impact.”
That has been the case in the College of Engineering in recent years. Between 1997 and 2004, the average first- and second-year retention rates were 64 and 70 percent, respectively. Following two years of implementing approaches that include mentoring and an engineering residential college, the retention rate of first-year students rose to 74.3 percent and the retention rate among second-year students rose to 77.5 percent
Let’s hope the dots Cheng connected in selecting Nicklow pay off.
