After asking Doug McConkey, vice president of student affairs and enrollment management, to resign last week, President Jo Ann Gora announced Wednesday she plans to change his position to oversee marketing and enrollment.
The head of student affairs will no longer be a vice presidential office but will continue to report to the president, she said.
Gora decided not to add another vice presidential position to the five existing ones because the additional cost would be significant, she said.
The vice presidents' fiscal salaries range from $132,500, which McConkey makes, to $168,100, which Beverley Pitts, provost and vice president for academic affairs, makes.
Gora said the new vice president needed experience in marketing, which is why she did not ask McConkey, who will leave the university Jan. 28, to accept the new position because he lacked experience in this area.
Gora said she created the office of vice president of marketing communication and enrollment management because she wanted to emphasize advertising Ball State University.
"We need to be more aggressive," she said.
Part of increasing marketing is putting a focus on enrollment.
"In my experience, generally marketing and communications have been married to enrollment services because they each have essential roles in telling the university's story," Gora said.
Eventually, Gora wants to raise the academic standards for admission while keeping up enrollment numbers, she said.
"I think the more effectively we tell our story, the more effectively we compete with institutions inside the state and outside the state," Gora said.
Increased marketing will also help recruit better faculty members, she said.
The president said she was still dedicated to student affairs, and that the new arrangement would benefit student affairs because it would directly report to the president.
Instead of creating a new position for the head of student affairs, though, she said she would most likely add managerial responsibilities to one of the existing offices in the university.
Randy Hyman, dean of students, said that even though the director would no longer be a vice presidential position, he believed the president was still dedicated to working with students.
However, Ben Tietz, Student Government Association president, said while most of the changes did not worry him, he was concerned about what the change of the head of student affairs would mean.
"I really don't know exactly what to think," Tietz said.
The change will also affect Don Park, vice president of university advancement. Park oversees university marketing, which will move under the umbrella of the new office.
Park said he would appreciate the chance to work with fundraising and alumni more, both of which offices are understaffed.
Allan Rent, director of university marketing, said the plan was still conceptual but would definitely increase marketing the university.
"It's not that we haven't done that, it's just we're going to take a more concentrated track," Rent said.
Gora said she knew some people would find it hard to accept the change in the administration's structure, but she said she felt it was in the university's best interest.
"I guess that although change is never easy for folks, I think this is an important move for the university," the president said. "Universities have to be responsive to change in their environment."
Most people in the affected offices would not notice a large difference, either, she said.
"This will not change their world entirely," Gora said.
The offices will also have several months to prepare for the transition.
The university will conduct a national search for a vice presidential candidate. The university will release an advertisement next week, and Gora will create a search committee in January, she said.
She has not decided who she wants on the committee yet.
"I'm looking for people with a broad understanding of the university," Gora said.
The committee should look for someone with experience as a vice president at a university and a background in marketing, she said.
Gora said she expected to choose the vice president by July 1 and at the same time name the director of student affairs.
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