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Paul Stark, SJ, vice president for student development, has announced a divisional reorganization designed to increase the focus on services and programs that meet students' needs and broaden their sense of community. The new structure establishes four major areas in the division: Student Formation, Student Facilities, Athletics and Business Management.
"The basic premise is our desire to affect students through a total divisional emphasis on service, relationship building and consciousness raising, rather than activities and programs only," Stark said. Over the past year, the members of the division have kept this basic philosophical change in mind while carefully examining its student services and the means by which those services are developed.
With the reorganization of the division, the following members of the senior management team will assume new positions and responsibilities. Kathy Humphrey, associate vice president for student formation, will supervise residential programs, student life and student services. Julie Saker, assistant vice president, will guide the division's student formation efforts and coordinate all judicial affairs. Matt Wever, director of student facilities, will focus on all student service facilities, including residence halls, Busch Memorial Center, the Billiken Sports Complex, the Laclede Town development, transportation services, maintenance and custodial services and summer conference management. Greg Patterson will serve as business administrator, responsible for division-wide budgeting, contract services and technology development. Gerry Kurfman will direct campus recreation programs. National searches now are under way for the positions of director of residential programs and program director for community outreach.
"What we now have is a structure that not only can provide excellent services to students, but also will enhance our sense of one effort, one commitment, one direction, one division," Stark said.
The reorganization reflects a yearlong process, initiated by the "Vision for the Division" program in January 1997, fine-tuned and made concrete by human resources and ongoing efforts within the division, and sharpened in presentations to the Institute on College Student Values, sponsored by the John Templeton Foundation.
Saint Louis University has been twice-honored as a "character-building" institution by the Templeton Foundation, noting exemplary programs and "committed efforts to address the needs of the students we serve."
"Our functional structure will give us additional opportunities for us to provide focused and responsive service in programs and student development in the Jesuit tradition," Stark said.