01/03/92
CONTACT: Stanford University News Service (650) 723-2558
STANFORD -- Mary M. Edmonds, vice president for student affairs at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, has been named Stanford University's first vice president for student resources, Provost James N. Rosse has announced.
The appointment is effective March 1, Rosse said. "Dr. Edmonds has begun to meet with the Student Resources administrative staff to ensure a smooth and rapid transition in March," Rosse said in a Jan. 2 memo to staff.
"I am very pleased that Dr. Edmonds has accepted Stanford's offer and I look forward to working with her on the issues that concern all of us in Student Resources."
As vice president for student affairs at Bowling Green since 1983, Edmonds has been responsible for a budget of $17.5 million and managed a staff of 200. Bowling Green has about 18,000 students, 8,000 of them university residents.
At Stanford, Edmonds will oversee a vice presidential unit that has an annual budget of $25 million and a staff of 300, not including part- time tutors, student resident assistants, 39 resident fellows, and academic advisors. Nearly all of Stanford's 6,527 undergraduates and about half of its 6,320 graduate students live on campus.
The position of vice president for student resources was created in 1990 and has been filled on an acting basis by Sally Mahoney, formerly registrar at Stanford. (Mahoney's plans will be announced later, she said.)
The Student Resources unit includes Stanford's need-based student financial aid program and the office of the Dean of Students, under Michael Jackson. (Before Stanford's reorganization, the Dean of Student Affairs reported directly to the president.)
Jackson's office, with a budget of more than $4 million and a staff of 100, includes Campus Affairs, Greek Affairs, Judicial Affairs, Residential Affairs, the student government and student organizations for ethnic groups, disabled students and gay students. The dean's office remains the front line of contact for most students.
Also under Edmonds will be the Career Planning and Placement Center, Center for Teaching and Learning, Continuing Studies/Summer Session, Cowell Student Health Center, Financial Aids Office, Network for Student Information, the Registrar's Office, Residential Education, the Undergraduate Advising Center and Undergraduate Admissions.
Edmonds also will work closely with three organizations that report to the president: the Haas Public Service Center, the Department of Athletics, Physical Education and Recreation, and the Office of the Dean of the Chapel, as well as with academic departments.
"It is truly an honor, a privilege and a challenge to be selected as the first vice president for student resources at Stanford," Edmonds said in a Jan. 3 telephone interview.
"I have known about the academic excellence of Stanford for many years. Yet it never occurred to me that I might be a part of the university someday. It is a challenge because of the very real pressures facing us in terms of the fiscal situation. I am impressed with the administration and with the people within the vice presidential unit with whom I have interacted so far."
Budget reductions under way at Stanford will be her first short-term priority, Edmonds said. "I have been impressed by the amount of work that has been accomplished to date on this issue. I will be in constant touch with this process until I am physically on the campus in March."
A second priority "will be to make each area productive in its reduced circumstances," she said. "The third priority will be to bring together all of the areas that are now within Student Resources as a cohesive working unit . . . . These three priorities are linked in a dynamic way and will be pursued together.
"Student input will be vital to the success of Student Resources and will be a continuing high priority on my agenda," she added.
Before being named vice president at Bowling Green, Edmonds was dean of the university's College of Health and Community Services from 1981 to 1983. She chaired the Department of Health Services at Cleveland State University from 1976 to 1981 and was director of the Physical Therapy Program there from 1972 to 1981. She has been a physical therapist since 1954.
Edmonds earned a doctorate in sociology at Case Western Reserve University in 1982, a master's in health studies there in 1962 and a bachelor's degree in biology from Spelman College in 1953.
She has been the author or co-author of numerous papers and scholarly articles and is the member of a number of professional organizations. She currently serves on the executive council of Chief Student Affairs Officers in the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges and on the U.S. Department of Education's Planning Group Network for the Elimination of Alcohol and Substance Abuse on College Campuses.
Edmonds will become the highest ranking African American staff member in the Stanford administration. She will be one of three women in the University Cabinet, along with Vice President for Human Resources Barbara Butterfield and Vice President for Administrative Resources Su Schaffer.
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