Aaron Burns | News Co-Editor
Buena Vista University’s (BVU) Graduate & Professional Study (GPS) program is undergoing significant change. Effective April 8, there will be a newly restructured chain of command within the GPS program designed to improve service to GPS students. Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty David Evans said that after careful research and consideration, administration decided on a complete program overhaul to reflect best practices and address GPS students’ needs.
Beginning last year, the GPS Cabinet members visited all the GPS sites and researched where the weaknesses in the program lay.
“It became pretty clear that as we did the inquiry, it had to be more than a simple and non-invasive rearrangement of job duties. It needed to be more of a comprehensive rethinking of the way we do business,” Evans said. “The result of that was to do a full-blown reorganization for it to happen.”
According to Evans, operational challenges ultimately set off the changes. GPS has worked very well for the University in the past, but there have been persistent challenges, which is not unusual for large organizations.
The complete reorganization meant changes to many position titles and duties. In order to facilitate the filling of the new position, BVU administration eliminated old positions and have invited current GPS employees to apply for the new jobs.
“We went into it knowing that it was going to be difficult and traumatic to the GPS staff, but for many reasons, including the advice of an employment attorney, we determined the way to do it was essentially to create new positions and reopen them,” Evan’s said.
There are approximately 46 open positions in the GPS restructuring. Evans hopes to have all the managers hired this week. He said that the goal is to hire internally, but if issues arise, external hiring will take place. The chosen managers will become a team to interview and hire for the next lower level.
A few positions have already been named. The academic portion of the GPS will continue to report to Evans. The enrollment portion will report to Vice President of Enrollment Management Mike Frantz. A leadership group, which will be responsible for budget, space, contracts with community colleges, and logistics, will consist of Director of GPS Enrollment Tabatha Carney and Operations Manager Jean Bral. Associate Professor of Communication Studies Jill Rhea will become GPS Academic & Program Development Dean and oversee the academic and program development managers. These three positions will work together with Evans and Frantz, who will complete the leadership team.
“Basically what we did was implement a new structure that reorganizes the way we’re going to operate,” Evans said. “The main thing is that recruitment, advising, and retention service is now in one line of authority.”
A main target area of the changes in GPS is in recruitment and enrollment. Program students are recruited and enter the program year-round, and there has been a struggle with making the connection between that recruitment process and bringing in students. A goal of restructuring the program is to improve the efficiency of this part of the GPS operation.
A secondary issue for GPS was that site directors at all sites had many different roles, including advising and administrative tasks. These tasks not only challenged them in their academic leadership positions, but also created obstacles to developing new relationships in the communities. In the restructuring, these positions are changing, and these obstacles are more likely to be removed.
“We have significantly clarified job responsibilities for the employees which will allow them to build even stronger relationships with students, businesses, and community college partners,” Frantz said.
Graphic by Aaron Burns
