In the past four and a half years, President Casey has built a foundation of goals for the rest of his years to come.
However, the university is lacking stability in some other key leadership positions. This semester, we have lost several prominent faces from the DePauw staff including former Vice President of Advancement Marcia Latta, Associate Director of Admissions Keith Stanford and football head coach Robby Long. In addition, we're still in the process of recruiting a vice president of Academic Affairs.
Advancement, Admissions and the football team are foundational pillars at DePauw, ensuring that our school retains its prominence in education and campus life.
Liberal arts applicant numbers are down, and unfortunately, we just said farewell to an incredibly successful and beloved recruitment officer in Stanford .
Our capitol campaign is in its growing 'quiet phase,' and the Monon Bell Classic game - which is sure to spark questions about the status of our football team from alumni - is around the corner. But we have interim leaders for positions that oversee such important events to this institution.
We haven't hired a vice president of Academic Affairs in three years. In the absence of a replacement, David Harvey has been acting as VP since July 1, 2009, and has been doing a fine job, but he deserves to return to the position he was originally hired for.
As we said earlier, we're looking forward to the future, but without a strong experienced staff the future looks a little more wobbly than we wish it would. To create stability, DePauw veteran staff members, who have watched the school progress and are chalk-full of experience, should be higher in number than they are currently. How are improvements supposed to be made if we can't remember the circumstances that caused failures or successes in the past?
We hope that as the administration seeks out candidates to fill positions they will search for people that will are prepared to stay for the long haul. The vital positions lost this year are not transitory or positions where people should come and go without noticeable consequences.
What is essential in the hiring process is selecting employees that have the dedication necessary to remain at DePauw for years to come, to ensure a stable and promising future for our generation and the next.
To ensure this goal, we hope that the administration looks to the most dedicated faculty and staff to determine who is best suited for the job. The creation of the VPAA search committee is already a step in the right direction.
But we also hope they don't forget to get input from multiple students, such as the football players that want to leave DePauw with a better program than what they came in to. Students will be incredibly invested in the university's happenings for years after graduation.