VP recommendation will be made by end of week, president says

President Robert Zeigler said he should have a recommendation ready by the end of this week for the vice president of academic success position.

In an interview Monday, he said he is exploring options with one of them being an executive vice president as opposed to having a vice president of academic affairs and vice president of student affairs.

He said he is weighing both considerations, but he could not discuss details involving personnel.

This college moved from having an executive vice president to having both vice president of academic affairs and vice president of student affairs positions in 2009.

Dr. Jessica Howard was hired as an executive vice president in 2009, but Zeigler changed the administrative structure and appointed Dr. Robert Vela, then dean of student affairs, to be vice president of student affairs.

David Mrizek was appointed in 2008 to be vice president of college services. This change happened when Chancellor Bruce Leslie promoted budget officers at each college to vice presidents.

Zeigler said the college switched to the model of academic and student services vice presidents in 2009 so the vice presidents could be in appropriate meetings at the college and at district.

He said sometimes the executive vice president had to be in meetings in both areas.

This college first switched to an executive vice president model when Zeigler’s interim presidency ended with the hiring of Dr. Vern Loland as president in January 1998.

Zeigler was vice president of academic affairs from 1994 to 1996, then was cast as interim president from 1996 to 1998.

He was vice president from 1998 to 2002 and has been president since 2002.

He said the college moved to two vice presidents in 2002 to be consistent with the other Alamo Colleges.

The other Alamo Colleges have a vice president for academic affairs, college services and student success. Although this college has a larger enrollment, this college does not have the largest administrative team. While all of Alamo Colleges now have three vice presidents, the number of deans varies. This college has five deans, while the others range from three to five.  Northeast Lakeview College has three, and St. Philip’s has six.

In the spring semester, this college had enrollment of 19,597 students attending on this campus; St. Philip’s had 10,319; Northeast Lakeview had 5,070 including students enrolled at this college; Northwest Vista had 14,99; and Palo Alto had 8,387.

Zeigler said Vela is doing a good job at handling both jobs, which he began July 2 after Howard left to become president of Portland Community College’s Southeast Campus.

Zeigler said a disadvantage with having an executive vice president is that the person had a busy workload.

Vela said Wednesday the vice president of academic affairs oversees the arts and sciences departments, professional and technical education, continuing education and workforce development, the library and Travis Early High School.

Vela said departments the vice president of student affairs oversees are enrollment services, which include the ID center, welcome center, admissions and records and assessment center.

That vice president also is in charge of counseling, advising, student development, the empowerment center, student life and veterans affairs.

The job posting for the vice president of academic affairs position closed Sept. 30.

Zeigler said he has not looked at any applications yet because he wants to “determine the structure” of the administration first.

Zeigler said cons of having two vice presidents are that when issues overlap both areas, there is confusion as to who is in charge of it.

He said with an executive vice president, there is only one person so there is no “risk of competition between the two.”

He said the single vice president model has more cohesion, but it also brings a heavier workload.

He said if he did choose the executive vice president model, he would have to recommend it to Chancellor Bruce Leslie and the Alamo Colleges board of trustees.

Zeigler said having one executive vice president would be cost-saving and the salary would increase, but not double.

Vela’s current salary is $118,000.

Zeigler said he cannot comment on which model he prefers.

Dr. Conrad Kreuger, dean of arts and sciences, said he does not believe the executive team’s duties will be affected if there is an executive vice president.

Vernell Walker, dean of professional and technical education, also said she does not expect to see a big difference if the college switches to a single vice president model.

She said if Zeigler were to choose an executive vice president, it would be a “smooth transition.”

She said she and Kreuger sometimes have difficulty determining which vice president should handle a problem involving a student because situations often involve issues in both the academic affairs and student affairs areas.

Having one executive vice president would improve workflow, she said.

Early childhood studies Chair Ellen Marshall, member of the District Council of Chairs said the council has not met to discuss the topic. She declined to giver her opinion.

Larry Rosinbaum, business professor and Faculty Senate chair, said he cannot comment on the search and referred all questions to Zeigler.

Zeigler discussed the idea with Faculty Senate in a closed meeting.