William Schafer was appointed Dec. 19 as interim Dean of Student Success. He will serve in this position for six months, from January to June of 2018. A search committee for the position will begin early winter quarter, according to Provost Katherine Frank. The committee will be made up of 12 faculty, six being from Student Success.

Regarding goals for his time here, Schafer expressed interest in “seeing how we can help the university continue to be even more successful with retention and graduation rates. That’s really the core.” He also mentioned interest in non-academic programs and activities for students.

This is the first time Schafer has worked on the West Coast, despite having worked at many different schools. Through his 35 years in higher-ed, Schafer’s worked at West Virginia University, most recently, and at Illinois Institute of Technology, his first dean position.

“Every school is different and every culture is different at these institutions. So you’re really trying to blend your experiences to offer recommendations to the institutions that you’re coming to,” Schafer said.

New to the area, receiving packages to furnish his university provided apartment and adjusting to a three-hour difference in time zones have been just some of the busy work Schafer has been doing for the last week.

Schafer has enjoyed his arrival in the area. He reflected that it was pretty and reminded him of of where he grew up in Colorado.

He arrived in the area on Sunday, Jan. 7 and had his first day at CWU the following day.  “Since it’s my first day on the job and I’m losing my voice already, talking a lot today, it’s really gathering information.”

“I believe this is a very special university. There’s a lot of very good things happening at this institution for students. Our goal is [to ask ourselves]: ‘how can we make it even better?’” Schafer said.