UD faculty, staff and students can help choose the next vice president for enrollment management by submitting their thoughts on which of the three candidates would best use innovative and effective prospective student programs to encourage students to apply to UD.

The final candidates are Sundar Kumarasamy, assistant provost for enrollment management at Saint Joseph's University (SJU), Mary Chase, director of admissions and scholarships at Creighton University, and Thomas Greene, interim associate vice president for enrollment services and special consultant at California State University. Kumarasamy was at two forums Nov. 8 and 9 to relate his strengths and experience to the public. Chase spoke Thursday and Friday, and Greene was on campus Monday and at 10 a.m. today.

Responsibilities of the vice president for enrollment management include heading programs for prospective students that are conducive with the Marianist philosophy of the application of faith and reason to everyday life, according to the job description created in September. He or she is to lead and develop a staff of 78 to achieve enrollment goals and create personal interaction between UD representatives and the prospective students. Among other duties, the job also includes analyzing the optimum way to spend scholarship money and generate more minority and international students.

The search for candidates began in June when Robert Johnson, the previous vice president, resigned to take a senior vice president position at Sinclair Community College. UD hired Robin Mamlet, a search consultant from the executive search firm of Witt/Kieffer, to create a booklet of job specifications and seek out candidates who fit well with UD's morals and goals.

Once Mamlet narrowed down the number of candidates to seven or eight, Provost Fred Pestello and the Executive Committee of the Academic Senate (ECAS) individually reviewed the candidates' credentials and chose the top four, one of whom later dropped out of the race. The ECAS consists of faculty representatives from all academic concentrations and one graduate student representative, Matt Schmitz. Schmitz had an idea of what qualities he would like to see the candidates possess because of his own experiences searching for a graduate school.

'They need to make [the university] accessible to folks who know what they want to get out of school and make it appeal to them,' Schmitz said.

Each candidate is currently working in a job with descriptions similar to those of the vice president for enrollment management. Kumarasamy's cover letter highlights experience with international programs for SJU. He set up a satellite program for SJU in Chennai, India and Singapore.

Kumarasamy wrote in his cover letter that the students attracted to the university increased enrollment in the computer science graduate program and brought a global perspective to the campus community.

During Chase's forum Thursday, she described one of her innovative projects for Creighton. Chase and her office set up a text messaging system that sent messages to students' phones as they were accepted into the school. Another inventive idea, a way to speed up processing students' files, won her the Innovative Idea of the Year award in 2002.

Chase said she stands behind UD, 'the hidden gem in Dayton,' and will look at possible tweaks to its online application process.

'You are too modest and humble about how good you are,' Chase said.

The last candidate to visit campus increased Seton Hall's freshman Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores by more than 60 points in five years, according to his cover letter. At his present job, Greene implemented change to campus tours, recommended new technology for registration and advising and analyzed changes to financial awards.

At each candidate's forum, those in attendance received a feedback sheet where they could write down thoughts on each candidate. The sheets are due by noon tomorrow to the Office of the Provost, St. Mary's Hall 212.

For those who missed the forums, the position specifications and the candidates' cover letters and resumes are available at quickplace.udayton.edu/vpemsearch.

Pestello will read through the public's suggestions and present his choice for candidate to President Dan Curran. An offer will be made to a candidate in the next few weeks.