New vice provost for student affairs acclimating himself to life on Farm

Stanford is bringing in the New Year with a new administrator. Gene Awakuni, who was hired last summer to succeed James Montoya as vice provost for student affairs, arrived at Stanford last month from a similar post at Columbia University.

"So far, everything has been going great," he said of his arrival at the Farm. In addition to getting acclimated to the new campus, Awakuni has been meeting with students and staff at community centers, discussing issues with members of the Stanford Labor Action Coalition and jumping midstream into ongoing university processes such as budget planning.

Soon he plans to start dropping by dormitories in an effort to help determine what issues are important to students. One major initiative he hopes to launch soon involves the space students use for activities such as meetings and rehearsals. Awakuni hopes to begin an in-depth analysis of student activity space to determine if more is needed.

Awakuni has specialized in student affairs since 1988, when he became special assistant to the vice chancellor for student affairs at the University of California-Irvine. His responsibilities grew when he was recruited to the University of California-Santa Barbara, and then to California State Polytechnic University, where he served as vice president for student affairs. At Cal Poly, Awakuni estimates he helped the university garner $10 million in grants for causes that ranged from drug and alcohol prevention to AmeriCorps Volunteer Services. In July 2000, Awakuni was recruited to Columbia.

One reason he left Columbia so soon, Awakuni said, is that his wife and son were still living in Southern California. While working in New York he commuted across the country every other weekend to be with his family. They are excited about moving to Palo Alto, he said.

The search for a vice provost for student affairs began last spring, after Montoya announced he would leave Stanford to serve as vice president of the College Board.