Morgan seizes failing department
Campus Times
October 17, 1997
President Stephen Morgan, in a recent administrative change, is now
supervising several offices within the University of La Verne enrollment
services.
Several offices which are supervised by Adeline Cardenas-Clague, dean
of enrollment services, now report directly to Dr. Morgan, as well as Dr.
William Cook, vice president of academic affairs.
Cardenas-Clague supervises the Registrar's Office, undergraduate admissions,
financial aid and academic advising.
Dr. Morgan gave two reasons that prompted the change in supervision.
The first one is the ongoing concern with undergraduate enrollment which
has been stable but with a slight decline for the last four years.
The second reason is that Dr. Cook has been appointed to take charge
of the accreditation that the University will be having in the year 2000.
Therefore, his full attention will be directed toward "that enormous
task."
"I am more concerned with the enrollment issue. We should be growing,
not shrinking," said Dr. Morgan.
Dr. Morgan will not be directly involved in the day-to-day activities
with the offices. Instead, Dr. Len Hightower, assistant to the president,
will take charge.
"The president has asked me to become immersed in the situation
and learn all I can learn about it, so I may provide the appropriate recommendation
and that is exactly what is happening," said Dr. Hightower.
Dr. Hightower's role in this situation is that of an information gatherer.
He has been asked to find out what other universities have been doing with
their departments and see if their actions could be helpful to ULV.
"What I would like is enrollment growth in three to five years.
Not an exact number, but to see what is realistic for La Verne. If we can
increase our enrollment, which is a major income, we will have more resources,
can add more staff, give raises to the existing staff and provide more financial
aid and improve our facilities," said Dr. Morgan.
Dr. Morgan is investigating why ULV was over it's financial aid allocation
last year and hopes the University can prevent that from happening again.
Since the changes took place three weeks ago, everything has been running
smoothly and the cohesive unit has been working "extremely well together,"
according to Dr. Morgan.
In the area of financial aid, Dr. Morgan stated that he would like the
office to offer the highest level of courteousness possible. He would like
for students to view the Financial Aid Office as an advocate for getting
them the most financial aid.
A memo was sent out campus-wide on June 23, stating Morgan's concern
for personalized service.
"It has long been a goal of mine to not only perpetuate the personalized
environment for which we are known, but also to strengthen and nurture it
wherever and whenever we can. It is my hope that no matter who in our organization
our students are dealing with, they know they are important and that we
care about them; that we want to provide them the highest quality educational
opportunities possible and that we want our services to be as student friendly
as possible," stated Dr. Morgan in that memo.
Dr. Morgan also said that the option of financial aid leveraging is
being explored. Financial aid leveraging directs financial aid to students
mostly likely to succeed at La Verne. Grade point average, SAT scores and
extra-curricular activities are taken in to consideration in determining
who gets aid.
"We are exploring our strengths and weaknesses and trying to shore
up our weaknesses," said Dr. Morgan.
