GSU looks to hire from within
Grambling State University is looking to hire from within for positions that became vacant after Cynthia Warrick took over as president July 1.
When she arrived at GSU, she removed a number of top level positions, saying the university needed a fresh start. She talked Wednesday about those academic and athletic changes with The News-Star's Editorial Board.
One of the biggest moves academically was combining the College of Education and College of Graduate and Professional Studies.
Janet Guyden served as dean of professional and graduate studies but now has a new role as provost vice president for academic and student affairs.
"We've consolidated some of these divisions to really look at the financial structure and make sure our academics coincide with student affairs to really emphasize the academics within student affairs," Warrick said.
Several appointments also were made in academic areas with critical needs, including nursing and visual and performing arts and history," Warrick said.
The majority of dean positions that were listed as vacant on GSU's website following Warrick's arrival have been filled from within, moving faculty around to accommodate areas with the greatest student needs.
"When I took over it, looked like the previous administrations did not involve a lot of the faculty in planning, so we're going to start with unit planning during our program review and get everyone involved. By December we will have an action plan and we will know what programs need to be revised or discontinued or enhanced. Then we will have a road map for our academic progress in the future," Warrick said.
She said most of the staff changes involved moving faculty into different roles or into other positions.
She believes morale is good among faculty and staff who she said were ready for change.
"They have all acknowledged to me that change was inevitable and necessary. I think they are excited and on board with dual enrollment and working to recruit more students in their area," Warrick said.
Before her arrival, Warrick reviewed university data and reports to devise a transition plan, looking at GSU's proposed budget, where she immediately saw concerns.
"They based a lot on the student enrollment for this fall, but the university had not really aggressively looked at how ACT scores would impact that enrollment. We just had to get the right folks at the table, and that's what precipitated the change," Warrick said.
She said immediate goals include recruiting more students from within Louisiana, increasing private partnerships to offset state budget cuts, improving technology and infrastructure and enhancing workforce development training for GSU students to assist them in landing lucrative jobs upon graduation.
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