UpDate - Vol. 14, No. 21, Page 1
February 23, 1995
Student life v.p. candidate to visit campus next week

     Roland McFatridge Smith, vice president for student affairs at
the University of Oklahoma since 1991, will visit the University of
Delaware campus next week, as the first finalist for the position of
vice president for student life.
     Smith will be in Newark Thursday and Friday, March 2-3, meeting
with a wide range of University constituencies, including students,
faculty and staff.
     For interested persons, Smith's complete resume:
        * is on-line through U-Discover! (Under "General University
          Information," select "Search for Vice President for Student
          Life");
        * is in the reserve room of the Morris Library;
        * is available for review in academic deans' offices; and
        * is available for review in the office of the director of the
          Perkins Student Center.
     In his current position, Smith has full budget, program and
operating responsibilities for such support services as Recruitment
Services, Residential Life and Housing, the Oklahoma Memorial Union,
Student Health Service, Student Employment, Career Planning and
Placement, Commuter Student Services, Student Publications, Counseling
and Testing, Learning Support Services, Minority Student Programming,
Handicapped Student Services, International Student Services, Dean of
Students and the Students' Association.
     Under his leadership there, a "strategic targeted" approach to
recruiting was developed that succeeded in stabilizing overall
enrollment at a time when the number of Oklahoma high school graduates
was declining. This approach also resulted in significant enrollment
increases for all minority student categories.
     Before going to Oklahoma, Smith was affiliated with the
University of Houston for six years, serving as associate vice
chancellor for program support, associate vice president for program
support and three years as vice president for student affairs.
     From 1969-85, he was at Carnegie-Mellon University, where he
served as associate provost for academic affairs for the last five
years. As associate provost, he participated in the implementation of
that university's information and telecommunications systems.
     He also worked to increase the number of minorities in graduate
programs and raised more than $1 million in grants from federal
agencies, foundations and corporations to fund scholarship programs
for minority students.
     His other posts at Carnegie-Mellon included assistant to the
president, professor in the history department and director of field
trials and evaluations. From 1962-69, he was a secondary school
teacher in Houston. An Army veteran, he served for three and a half
years with NATO forces in Germany.
     A cum laude graduate of Prairie View A&M College, he received his
master's and doctoral degrees in history from Carnegie-Mellon
University.
     Smith is the co-author of the books, The Faces of America: A
History of the United States and Living in an Urban World: A 10th
Grade World Cultures Courses for Slow-Learning Students, and he has
written articles and reviews for professional journals.
     His professional activities have included chairing the Council
for Student Affairs of the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher
Education, serving on the Region IV-West Advisory Board of the
National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) and
serving on the National Association of State Universities and Land-
Grant Colleges' Council on Student Affairs.
     He is a member of the American Historical Association, the
American Management Association, the Association for the Study of Afro-
American Life and History, the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People, NASPA, the National Council for the
Social Studies, the Organization of American Historians and the
Southern Historical Association, among others.
     The vice president for student life reports to the provost and is
a member of the president's senior staff. As the UD's chief student
life officer, the vice president provides leadership to and direction
for the offices of Admissions, Financial Aid, Career Services,
Counseling and Student Development, Dean of Students, Residence Life,
Student Health Service, Student Centers and Student Services for
Athletes.
     Betty J. Paulanka, dean of the College of Nursing, heads the 13-
member search committee for the vice president for student life.
     She encourages members of the campus community who meet the
candidates to send their comments to the search committee or to
President David P. Roselle, preferably via e-mail.
     In addition to Paulanka, members of the search committee are
Kathryn Emery, president of Panhellenic; Ronald Lieberman, president
of the Delaware Undergraduate Student Congress (DUSC); Michael
Piacente, president of the Interfraternity Council; Nakishia Williams,
president of the Black Student Union; Maxine Colm, vice president for
employee relations; Araya Debessay, professor of accounting; Pierre
Hayward, vice president and University secretary; Barbara Kelly,
professor of physical education; Barbara Kreppel, assistant vice
president; Kenneth Lomax, associate professor of agricultural
engineering; David Pong, chairperson of the Department of History; and
Michael Vaughan, assistant dean of the College of Engineering and
director of its Resources to Insure Successful Engineers (RISE)
program.
     John Cavanaugh, American Council on Education fellow in the
Office of the President, serves as staff assistant to the committee.