VPAF candidate holds open session

Chloe Phillips, Reporter|March 27, 2019

As of Jan. 31, Marilyn Fowlé retired from her position as vice president of administration and finance (VPAF) after having the position for seven years. Faculty and staff were given the opportunity to meet VPAF candidate Brett Powell at an open session on March 25, 2019. Powell believes he is a good candidate for the position because of his experience of working with liberal arts universities and lessons learned from being in difficult environments.

“The experience that I’ve had in higher ed has really prepared me for this position because I’ve worked at other liberal arts universities for quite some time. And being in a number of difficult environments, you learn a lot of lessons from it that you pull forward everything that you do that comes after that,” Powell said. “So, I think have the right experience that I can provide good leadership to the administration and finance function here and hopefully fit in well with the rest of the team.”

AUDIENCE COMMENTS

“I felt like had definitely did a thorough job of answering all the questions from the audience. He seems approachable, well thought out, and a decent applicant for the position.” | Emily Billings, media librarian

“I was impressed by his thought process and what he’s done in the past. Experience is very important. Often times you do not know what to do if you have not had enough experience in the past to help lead you to understand what the possibilities are.” | Terry Patton, chair of accounting, MIS and legal studies

“What I really appreciated about the candidate is that he has a broad perspective on the factors that influence higher education and finance in higher education. He wasn’t solely focused on one area of campus, he identified areas that included all of the realms we work in so, I appreciated the fact that he was able to look at things from multiple perspectives.” | Kristi Schulte, director of residence life and housing