VPSA candidate Reesor lays out student-centered vision for healthier UND

Lori Reesor, the third of three candidates for the position of Vice President for Student Affairs to visit campus, stressed her varied academic and administrative background, commitment to student learning and development, and her vision for creating a healthy University environment, at a public forum Oct. 18.

She currently serves as Associate Vice Provost for Student Success at the University of Kansas in Lawrence.

Reesor earned her bachelor’s degree in business management from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater in 1984, her master’s from Iowa State University in Ames in 1987 and her doctorate in educational policy and leadership from the University of Kansas.

She has been in her present position since 2006. Prior to that, she was assistant and associate dean in the School of Education, and assistant professor and adjunct instructor in higher education at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.  She served as dean of students at Wichita State University.  At the University of Kansas, she was associate director of admissions, assistant to the dean of educational services, assistant director of new student orientation and residence hall director.

Reesor has professional experience in areas of student life, enrollment management and academics.  As Associate Vice Provost for Student Success at Kansas, she is responsible for supervising and coordinating student success programs and services for about 25,000 students.  She is a member of and has served in leadership positions within the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA). She also is a member of the Association for the Study of Higher Education and the National Academic Advising Association.

During her talk, Reesor emphasized her student-centered approach and vision for creating a healthy University environment.  She touted her background and passion as a teacher as a cornerstone of her philosophy.

“Wherever I’ve been, I’ve tried to teach as a component of my job,” Reesor said. “That’s always been an important motivating factor in my life.”

Reesor said UND and the Grand Forks community “feel like home” to her. Though somewhat smaller, UND, with its robust research activity, commitment to students, law school, medical school and reputation as the state’s flagship University, compares quite favorably with KU, she said.

She also sees UND’s strong commitment to promoting multiculturalism and diversity as very important.

“It feels like a really good match for me,” she said.

Reesor expanded on the importance of diversity to a University while laying out her values and beliefs. She said diversity and excellence go together – they’re not separate. She added that embracing diversity is much more than simply being tolerant or appreciative.

“We must incorporate multiculturalism and diversity into everything that we do,” Reesor said.

She rounded out her values and beliefs by stressing support for the academic mission of the University, commitment to student learning and development, integrity in all relationships, work and processes; and service to ALL students.

Reesor cited an excerpt from “Well-Being,” (Roth & Harter, 2010) on what it means to be truly thriving, while elaborating her philosophy for a healthy University community.  She laid out five standards for well being: physical, financial, social, community and career; and connected how each might be used to improve the University organization and the lives of students.

Under physical well-being, she talked about how only 20 minutes of physical activity each day can improve a person’s mood for hours afterward. She used it as a reminder that the University community, including, students, need to be mindful take care of themselves and not take on more than they can handle.

Under the category of social well being, Reesor talked about the importance of having a “best friend” at work and maintaining diverse social networks as a way to reduce stress. She said such strategies, among others, could be useful in helping students who tend to isolate themselves.

When it comes to community well being, Reesor said it’s important to take pride and make a contribution to one’s community.  This can be challenging sometimes when it comes to students. She said she would work hard to ensure UND students really do feel like they are members of the University and Grand Forks communities.

Reesor said her vision for student affairs is rooted in the establishment of an engaging, progressive and collaborative work environment. She said her vision is one that creates learning communities for students throughout campus, both inside and outside the classroom; providing quality services and experiences, and producing proud UND alumni.

In addition to her wide-ranging experiences in enrollment services, wellness and student life; a background in academics; a dedication to see multiculturalism and diversity in action; and a commitment to excellence, Reesor said she also would bring to UND a strong belief that students are primary.

She then took questions from the audience, the answers to which are summarized below.

One audience member was curious how KU used a system of academic liaisons to enhance inter-departmental and inter-organizational communication. She said the system can be especially effective when used in a large sprawling University community, such as KU, which has an enrollment of about 30,000 students. She said appointed academic liaisons have gone a long way to enhancing collaborations and engagements between on-campus entities that may not have been comfortable enough to seek each other out in the past.

Another member of the audience wondered what kind of strategies Reesor could bring to encourage students to pay their accounts in a timely fashion. She said KU has used the “student hold” process, which temporarily freezes a student’s academic progress until their bills and fees are paid up. But Reesor emphasized that an even more effective way of dealing with these issues might be to better educate students on the resources available when it comes to financial assistance.

“We need to be more proactive to work with students on these issues,” Reesor said.

An audience member wanted to know what ideas Reesor had for getting students more involved in the decision-making processes at UND. Reesor said it is important to actively engage with students – all students— to get the pulse of what is going on and what they are feeling, especially, those students whose “voices are not often heard.”

Reesor added that at UND there already is a “good-news” story taking place when it comes to student involvement at high levels of the University’s decision-making processes.  She cited UND President Kelley’s inclusion of a student on the University Cabinet to back up her point.

Still another audience member wanted to know how Universities might help students who are not ready for college.  She said that student affairs committees, such as the Student Conduct Review Board, can be effective in assessing students and their needs, but it is important for universities to be working one-on-one with these students for them to be successful.

“I think it is important to have a partnership in those kinds of decision-making processes,” she said.

She said, however, Universities must also carefully weigh how other students may be impacted in these situations.

“We have to balance the rights of the individual with the rights of the community,” she said.

Next, the topic shifted to alcohol abuse on college campuses and what advice Reesor might have for dealing with such issues.  She said KU uses mandatory online alcohol awareness training for incoming freshman and transfer students younger than 21 as well as campaigns on campus to teach students how to take care of each other.

Reesor said some of KU’s strategies for addressing alcohol abuse resulted after a couple of alcohol-related deaths among students.  She said that the Greek chapters at KU have really stepped up recently to seriously deal with alcohol abuse and promote awareness.

“They came to us and said we’ve got to do something about this; we need some help,” Reesor said.

She said universities also need to educate the public about some of the pre-existing alcohol problems that students bring with them before they even set foot on campus.

An audience member asked Reesor what she has done in her career to promote diversity. She answered by reinforcing her passion and advocacy for diversity and multiculturalism, saying that there should be an education component involved when promoting diversity. Also, she said, it’s important to be open and honest about diversity issues, and above all, take action.

Reesor said she is a diversity advocate who is always asking what can be done to make her university more welcoming.

Finally, Reesor was asked about her hobbies and interests. She said she and her husband, who also attended the public forum, live vicariously through their two children, who are 8 and 6 years old. They enjoy taking part in their children’s music and sporting events as well as walking, biking and “just enjoying family time together.” — David Dodds, University Relations.