The University of Wisconsin will realign the Office of Admissions and Visitor and Information Programs and search for a new director of admissions in anticipation of the newly created Vice Chancellor for University Relations position to be filled by former Senior Associate Athletic Director Vince Sweeney.
The Office of Admissions and VIP previously operated as a single unit under the Division of Enrollment Management with Admissions and VIP Director Steve Amundson overseeing both.
After the change, Amundson will retain oversight for VIP, which will now operate under the purview of Sweeney in the University Relations office.
With Amundson narrowing his focus to VIP, UW will initiate a national search for a new director of admissions to fill the void left by the reorganization.
Associate Director of Admissions Tom Reason will serve as interim director of admissions until a new director has been appointed.
Marking the second time in six months the two offices have been reorganized, the most recent change reflects Chancellor Biddy Martin’s desire to enhance the university’s external relations functions, according to Sweeney.
“I think that the activities of the VIP are completely in line with what we’re trying to do overall with the university relations general mission of improving our outreach,” Sweeney said.
While the VIP and office of admissions do overlap in many ways, VIP does have functions that are not related to admissions according to Joanne Berg, associate vice chancellor of enrollment management.
Organizing tours and information sessions for prospective students and their families is clearly closely related to the admissions process, however, VIP also organizes tours and events for researchers coming to campus and other conferences as well.
“[We] decided that we could probably leverage more out of the VIP having it be closely connected to university relations and university communications, and may be able to give it more breadth,” Berg said.
Sweeney added the VIP will continue to work very closely with the office of admissions in coordinating overlapping projects.
The VIP and related parent programs are relatively new units on campus, morphing out of the Campus Assistance Center, according to Berg.
“It’s a new model, we’ve looked around at other campuses and its not really what has been happening out there, but a lot of other campuses have more established visitor programs than what we’ve had, so we’re growing,” Berg said.
In addition to streamlining and optimizing the VIP and parent programs, the reorganization will also create opportunity for growth and advancement in the admissions office.
With a new director of admissions, the office of admissions will be able to devote more focus and energy to the mounting challenges facing the admissions process, according to Berg.
The state of the economy as well as peeking national numbers of high school graduates going on to college have already caused a drop in UW applicants for the 2009-10 academic year.
“There is a whole lot of challenges ahead that we’re really going to need someone with a good creative head to help with,” Berg said. She added the university is just beginning the process of putting together a search and screen committee to conduct the national search for a new admissions director.
Due to a reporting error, the article should have said Tom Reason, not Steve Amundson, will serve as interim director of admissions. The article has been changed to reflect this and we regret the error.
