Three candidates for the vacant UA director of admissions and new student enrollment position gave public presentations last week about themselves and the climate of admissions.The national search has been in the works since April, said Barbara Ross, search coordinator.
According to a memo circulated throughout the University of Arizona, the job entails planning and directing the recruitment, selection and notification of prospective students.
Qualifications for the $42,500-a-year position include administration experience and a master's degree in any field of study, said Mike Duran, the search committee's chairman. He said the search committee, which consists of six UA staff members, was in ch arge of reviewing about 60 applications.
Jerome Lucido, enrollment services and academic support assistant vice president, gathered the committee after the position opening was nationally advertised, Ross said.
The position has been vacant for about a year, Duran said.
Because the fall semester is nearing, "it is important to identify the new director as soon as possible," he said.
Lori Goldman has been interim director of the department. She is trying to become the permanent director.
Goldman has been working in UA admissions eight years.
In an electronic message, Goldman said one of the things best qualifying her for the position is "my belief in higher education."
At the presentation, Goldman spoke about factors affecting the Office of Admissions, namely minority services and new technology.
"Minority recruitment-retention is a key challenge for admissions the UA," said Goldman. "Improvements for the admissions office will be focused on utilizing technology to do jobs people currently do, and transferring people to jobs which machines can not do."
"In the future, we will be doing people work," she said.
Margi Stevenson has been working as Humboldt State University's director of admissions and school relations for the last four years. Humboldt is located in Northern California and has about 7,400 students.
She has about 15 years experience in admissions.
Although her experience is with a smaller institution, Stevenson said working at the UA will allow her to take on new challenges and more of a leadership role.
She said she applied to the UA because she likes the Southwestern environment and the accessibility of the university staff.
"Listening and communicating are the most important things," said Stevenson. The only way to understand the campus climate is to go out and talk to the students, she said.
As far as utilizing the World Wide Web to inform prospective students about college choices, Stevenson said university information on the World Wide Web should be integrated into already existent early outreach efforts.
Edwin Escalet, the director of minority admissions and community affairs at Pennsylvania State University, has been working in college admissions for the last 19 years.
Escalet said he applied to the UA because he is comfortable at big institutions. Challenges at large institutions "intrigue" him, he said.
Ultimately, he said he would like to become involved with making policy decisions.
"Big institutions become complacent," said Escalet. The challenge then is for them "to stay hungry." He said the Office of Admissions needs to improve the university's buying motive by showing students the UA's benefits compared to other institutions.
In his presentation, Escalet also spoke about the effect the World Wide Web is going to have in the Office of Admissions.
"The Web is going to drastically change the way we do business," he said.
Escalet cited the growing use of electronic mail and the ability of prospective students to send their university applications over the Internet as examples.
