July 23, 2008

Candidates for Student Affairs post to visit campus

by Christi Mathis

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Members of the Southern Illinois University Carbondale community can meet the four finalists for the position of associate vice chancellor for student affairs/dean of students in a series of open presentations beginning this week.

Zauyah Waite, Randi S. Schneider, Cheryl F. Green and Peter Gitau will each be on campus for two-day visits that will also include tours and meetings with University officials.

Students, faculty and staff may attend the open presentations in Rooms 111-112 of the Student Health Center. Each presentation will run from 9 to 10:30 a.m. The schedule is:

• Friday, July 25: Waite.

• Tuesday, July 29: Schneider.

• Friday, Aug. 1: Green.

• Tuesday, Aug. 5: Gitau.

Larry H. Dietz, vice chancellor for student affairs, anticipates the new associate vice chancellor /dean of students will be in place shortly after the fall semester starts in August. The position isn’t new, but has been vacant since Jean Paratore’s retirement in December 2003. Dietz assumed the responsibility of supervising various offices when the initial search closed.

There has been some restructuring of the associate vice chancellor/dean of students position. Reporting to the new associate vice chancellor will be Student Development, Disability Support Services, Judicial Affairs, Career Services, Student Legal Assistance, Rainbow’s End Child Development Program and the Counseling Center, Dietz said. The successful candidate will also chair the Campus Life Safety Committee.

Waite, currently associate vice president for student affairs and dean of students at the University of Toledo in Ohio, will visit SIUC Thursday and Friday, July 24 and 25. She’s held that position since July 2006, overseeing hundreds of staff and student employees within the two divisions and budgets totaling more than $36 million. She previously held a number of positions at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, including director of the student life office, dean of students, adjunct professor, assistant director and student services coordinator for the student life office, teaching assistant in language and literacy and building supervisor of Swinney Recreation Center. Waite also served as reading instructor at the Malaysian Institute of Technology.

A native of Malaysia, Waite now resides in Sylvania, Ohio. She earned her doctorate in urban leadership and policy studies in education and her master’s in reading education at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. She holds a bachelor’s in English language studies and translation from the University of Malaysia.

Waite’s background includes numerous professional honors, serving as a consultant for various forums, professional presentations and community service.

Schneider is now the director of enrollment management and student services at the Trumbull Campus of Kent State University in Ohio. She’ll visit the Carbondale campus Monday and Tuesday, July 28 and 29. Since January 2005, Schneider has led enrollment management efforts on the commuter campus, which enrolls about 2,100 students, and served as adjunct faculty member in higher education and student affairs. Also during her time with Kent State, she’s been student accessibility services/student intake assistant and adaptive technology assistant. Prior to that, at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, she was interim assistant vice president for student affairs, director of university health services and associate director of residence life in the office of housing and residence life.

She also held positions at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Illinois State University at Normal while furthering her education. All told, Schneider has 22 years of experience in student affairs and enrollment management administration.

Schneider received her doctorate in education organization and leadership from the University of Illinois. She earned both her master’s in counselor education and bachelor’s in social work at ISU and her associate of arts from Oakton Community College in Des Plaines.

Currently residing in Stow, Ohio, she’s active in a number of professional organizations and as a community and campus volunteer. She’s made many presentations in professional settings and her initiatives include working to develop a statewide student insurance consortium in Pennsylvania.

Green will return to her alma mater July 31 and Aug. 1. Currently the chair of the counseling department at Chicago State University since 2004, she was previously associate professor of counseling there and served as an Eastern European mental health professional delegate and People to People ambassador. As chair of the counseling department, she’s spent thousands of hours counseling clients, delivered hundreds of workshops and presentations annually, led the staff and overseen a $500,000 budget. Her experience at CSU also includes being acting associate director of career placement, assistant professor of counseling and she was the grievance chair for the University Professionals of Illinois Local 4100. In addition, she served in a number of committee and board positions at CSU. At the University of Michigan-Flint, Green was director of career planning and placement.

Green earned her doctorate and her master of arts, both in counseling psychology, at SIUC. She also holds a bachelor of science in psychology from Manchester College in North Manchester, Ind.

Now residing in Chicago, Green has completed a number of specialized training sessions and has 20 years experience in higher education and student affairs. She’s been involved in several research projects. Green has served in numerous university and professional organization roles, served as a professional consultant and earned a variety of honors and awards.

Peter Gitau will visit campus Aug. 4-5. He’s now dean of student life at the University of Dubuque, Iowa. His work there since 2006 has included supervising several campus departments, reorganizing the student life division, developing a student judicial board, revising the student code of conduct, and initiating a campus-wide early alert retention program. Gitau was previously executive assistant to the president for diversity and director of multicultural affairs at Manchester College in Indiana, principal of Veritas Christian School in Lawrence, Kan., and foreign languages instructor at the University of Kansas, Lawrence. He also worked in the office of multicultural affairs at the University of Kansas, and taught high school and directed youth programs at a church in Kenya.

Gitau earned his doctorate in higher education policy and administration at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, and his master’s at Eastern Illinois University at Charleston. His bachelor’s in secondary education came from Kenyatta University in Nairobi, Kenya. He holds several professional memberships and has been involved in various committees and professional activities in his field. He’s founder and executive director of Teach My Kenyan Children (TMKC), an international not-for profit organization geared toward fostering development through education in Africa. Gitau has made a number of professional presentations as well.

Brad Colwell, associate dean in the education college, is chair of the search committee. Dietz said he is “pleased and thankful for the work that the search and screening committee has done to date. We have a diverse and experienced group of professionals who are interested in the position and we look forward to learning more about them in the interview process.”