In a Sept. 30 letter to the campus community, President Irvin D. Reid announced reorganization and changes in the Division of Student Affairs.

The moves address one of Reid's 10 challenges: the development of a comprehensive enrollment planning and management strategy.

The principal changes involve the appointment of a high level steering committee under the chief of staff to develop a short-term enrollment action plan and long-term strategy, as well as the transfer of several units from the Division of Student Affairs to Marketing and Communications.

In addition, the dean of the College of Lifelong Learning, Robert L. Carter, has been named interim vice president of student affairs for a period of up to one year to take over management duties, following the resignation for health reasons of William Markus as vice president.

Thomas J. Sees, who has been interim assistant vice president, was named associate vice president of student affairs and will serve as Carter's deputy vice president.

President Reid called for a new approach to turn around the small but regular decline in enrollment of recent years.

"When I took office almost one year ago," Reid said, "I identified 10 challenges for the first 24 months of my administration; 10 things we must accomplish to be a world class teaching and research university. One such challenge is the development of an integrated enrollment management system. If we are unable to attract and retain qualified undergraduate and graduate students, we cannot become the institution we aspire to be."

Reid called for an enrollment system that calls for close cooperation of many different units on campus.

"The steady decline in enrollment at Wayne can change through the development of a comprehensive plan to guide future operations and activities," he said, "a strategy that links all of the components of an effective system together: admissions and recruiting, financial aid, marketing, student life, and an academic success center to focus our retention efforts.

"This plan would be a cross-functional effort requiring input and support from virtually every division within the university."

The steering committee will be chaired by Chief of Staff Meredith Gibbs and includes the provost, the vice presidents for student affairs, marketing and communications, computing and information technology and finance and administration, and representatives of the Council of Deans and the Academic Senate.

The committee will return its short-term action plan by Nov. 1, 1998 and the outline of a longer-term plan by Jan. 1, 1999.

Effective Oct. 1, the offices of scholarships and financial aid and university admissions will be transferred to the Division of Marketing and Communications under the leadership of Interim Vice President Jeffrey Stoltman.

The other units of student affairs will be managed by Carter, whose background of almost 15 years at Wayne State includes student services, program administration, and community education.

Carter's service included a brief break of just over a year in 1996-97 to head the College of General Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. He returned to the College of Lifelong Learning in September 1997, saying upon his return, "Sometimes you have to go away from home to find out how important home is to you. I left here thinking that WSU is the best institution in the country, and I come back thinking the same thing."

Carter's previous service included 10 years as a director of educational development programs for the Associated Colleges of the Midwest. He holds a bachelor's degree from Beloit College and master's and doctoral degrees from Northwestern University.

Sees came to Wayne State as registrar in 1985 following service as associate registrar at Drexel University in Philadelphia, where he served for more than 20 years.

Fall term enrollment at
Wayne State University
1988 to 1997

Total (official) headcount enrollment

1988-30,751
1989-32,477
1990-33,752
1991-34,004
1992-34,945
1993-34,280
1994-32,906
1995-32,149
1996-31,185
1997-30,729
1998-not yet available

source-Office of the Registrar