Search for enrollment VP continues

The quest for a new VP of Enrollment continues

With the vacant position in the vice president of enrollment, Concordia is on the move to find the next individual to fulfill the spot.

At the beginning of the year, Concordia faculty and staff members received an email stating Steve Schuetz, previous vice president of enrollment since 2011, had ended his time at Concordia.

Linda Brown, vice president for finance and treasurer chair, could not share the confidential reasons for Schuetz’s departure.

Concordia formed a search committee to find the next candidate. The committee members are Linda Brown, Dr. Per Anderson, Rachel Bergeson, Alan Christenson, Lois Cogdill, Roger Degerman, Dr. Mona Ibrahim, Dr. Leigh Wakefield and Dr. Kirsten Theye.

At the beginning of the year, the search committee held two sessions with their search consultants and faculty to discuss what the faculty was looking for in the vice president.

“They’re really just listening sessions, and that comes out in the search profile,” Brown said.

Brown stated the vice president for enrollment is responsible for recruitment of new students, retention of existing students and the administration for financial aid.

Currently, Eric Addington, Director for Financial Aid, holds the interim position as Vice President of Enrollment.

The search consultants developed a search profile that addresses the qualifications the Concordia community wants. According to the profile, Concordia hopes for “a seasoned enrollment professional, a collaborative manager and strategist, a relationship builder, a problem solver and decision maker, a skilled and effective communicator, and a team player with analytical skills.”

More information on the qualifications can be found on Concordia’s website.

With a basic outline of who they want, the committee can begin building a candidate pool.

“You post the position, and you begin advertising,” Brown said. “Interest letters go out to a variety of people, then there’s lots of networking looking for potential candidates.”

According to Brown, their goal is to close the application in mid-December. Then the search committee will narrow down the pool and continue to search for more specific candidates.

After identifying finalists, the candidates come to Concordia to learn the campus and to meet staff and faculty personally. Sessions will be held then where the candidates can give a brief presentation on him or herself, and the audience can ask questions. The sessions are open to anyone. Brown hopes to hold these sessions in late February.

If all goes according to plan, President Craft will have picked an individual to be the new vice president for enrollment by late spring.

“We’re moving through a process,” Brown said.