Dear AU Community,

I hope your semester is going well. Today, I want to update you on our upcoming leadership transition in the Office of Campus Life, Undergraduate Enrollment, and Inclusive Excellence. We are working with our great teams in preparation for Fanta Aw’s departure next month, and we have plans to celebrate and thank her over the next weeks. While transitions can sometimes be daunting, we want to use this opportunity to build on the great work that has been done. We are fortunate to have strength throughout the university that can help us during the transition. As we continue to work together as a community, it will help this transition move forward and make our future stronger and better.

As we use this transition as an opportunity for continued improvement, we sought feedback from community, including those who work in these offices and use their services. We also examined the needs of our teams and what will help us achieve our goals in an ever-changing environment. Based on this work and input, we will be hiring individual vice presidents to lead each of the three functions. The positions will be vice president of student affairs, vice president of undergraduate enrollment, and vice president of inclusive excellence. All three will be members of the cabinet and report to me. Graduate enrollment will remain in the Office of the Provost.

We are immediately launching searches for the vice president of student affairs and the vice president of undergraduate enrollment. These two searches will be coordinated by Storbeck, a firm with extensive higher education recruitment experience. Our search process will start with consultation with campus stakeholders about the needs of the two offices, what we should be looking for in their next leaders, and input on the position descriptions. Representatives from the AU community will also participate in on-campus interviews with candidates selected to move forward in the process. Our intent is to have these two positions filled by the start of the next academic year.

While the searches are underway, we have three people stepping into interim roles that will facilitate the transition and support our teams. Andrea Felder, current vice provost of undergraduate enrollment, will serve as interim vice president for undergraduate enrollment. Andrea joined American University in 2017 and leads our undergraduate enrollment efforts. Sarah Baldassaro, our chief of staff, will serve as interim vice president for student affairs and inclusive excellence. This includes oversight of COVID-19 activities. Sarah is a longtime leader in higher education, spending more than 12 years at George Washington University before joining AU in 2021. Finally, Andrew Toczydlowski will serve as interim chief of staff while Sarah focuses on student affairs and inclusive excellence. Andrew is a leader in our community in many ways, having served as chair of Staff Council, and he is currently the director of graduate student success and development.

We are finalizing arrangements for the vice president of inclusive excellence search and will share more information in the near future.

I want to thank the teams in Campus Life, Undergraduate Enrollment, and Inclusive Excellence, as well as all the partners across campus who collaborate with these functions to support our community, for their help, dedication, and flexibility as we conduct the transition. We will provide additional updates as the searches move forward.

Sincerely,
Sylvia