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KRISTIN ELVES/Arizona Daily Wildcat
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Newly appointed vice president for Undergraduate Education Randy Richardson will now be able to permanently settle into his office. Richardson, also a professor of geosciences, had been the interim vice president for two years before being given the job for good last week.
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By Cyndy Cole
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Tuesday Feb. 12, 2002
Goals include fully staffing ILC and preparing for enrollment growth in the fall and beyond
Randy Richardson will be the new vice president for undergraduate education, Provost George Davis announced today.
Davis offered Richardson, who has filled the position on an interim basis for the past two years, the job last week pending confirmation from the Arizona Board of Regents.
"I'm delighted that he has accepted the position," Davis said.
Richardson beat Patti Ota, senior associate to the president, the other finalist for the position. Ota was unavailable for comment yesterday.
"I'm gratified to have earned the university's confidence to serve as the permanent vice president for undergraduate education."
- Randy Richardson
vice president for undergraduate education
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"(Ota and Richardson) have very different profiles, but the search committee made the decision that Randy would be the one for the job," University of Arizona President Peter Likins said.
Richardson's duties include overseeing the Office of Student Financial Aid, the Honors College and the Office of Admissions and New Student Enrollment.
Preparing for a large incoming fall 2002 enrollment, getting the Integrated Learning Center staffed and equipped to full capacity and helping UA plan for growing enrollment in years to come are some of Richardson's top priorities, he said.
His other goals include:
making UA more "transfer-friendly" for the 25 percent of UA students who transfer in from other colleges;
starting a mentoring program for professors, where those without a lot of experience teaching lower-division classes would have more experienced instructors as mentors;
promoting more student/faculty interaction through research, capstone projects and honors theses;
and recruiting ethnically diverse students, especially Hispanic students.
Expanding branch campuses, like UA South in Sierra Vista and UA North - a shared campus with Pima Community College currently under construction in Marana - will be one possibility Richardson said he'd consider in managing growing enrollment. Another option Richardson supports is raising admission standards to Arizona's three public universities.
Richardson would like to expand fund-raising efforts for grants and scholarships and look toward meeting a shortage in state funding to UA that will continue next year. Nailing down the job for the long-term will help him plan better for the years ahead, he said.
"I'm gratified to have earned the university's confidence to serve as the permanent vice president for undergraduate education," Richardson said.
The vice president for undergraduate education position had been open since Mike Gottfredson left in July 2000 to become the executive vice chancellor at the University of California-Irvine.
Two weeks ago, Ota and Richardson held public forums, where the public gave the search committee recommendations on each candidate. The public's input and the search committee's recommendation were not released.
-Arek Sarkissian II contributed to this report.
