Lida Wall, interim vice president for academic affairs, stated several things that could be done better at Eastern and how she plans to “change” things if officially granted the position of vice president for academic affairs.

“Initially after taking the position as interim, I was not going to apply, I wanted to make sure I had the skills and ability first,” said Wall, who is competing for the position against five other candidates.

Wall spoke to staff, faculty and student senate members at an interview meeting on Monday, in hopes of officially attaining the position she as filled in an interim capacity since July of 2000.

Areas of the vice presidential departments are not currently communicating well, according to Wall.

“We need to do a better job,” Wall said. “It is a big shortfall.”

Wall said her priority within the President’s Council will be, “we are here because students have come here for knowledge and the faculty are here to deliver that need.”

Wall also said she would like to take a different approach towards the upcoming faculty contract negotiations.

“I do not feel the adversarial approach is beneficial,” Wall said.

Wall said the “external constituents” watch that kind of behavior and it can be very “detrimental” to the university in general.

As part of an effort to curb the decline of Eastern’s enrollment, Wall said she wants to create a focus group to look at the issue.

“I want to try to get a better perspective of why we are losing students after freshmen year, if that is the case, by creating a focus group of students to see what the thoughts are,” Wall said. “We haven’t done enough.”

Wall also said she may consider moving the enrollment management department under academic affairs.

“The idea being that the academic area would have a better idea of how many students it can handle, as in class sizes. This is not to forget about the needs of the housing and dormitory area,” Wall said.

Wall also addressed a concerns about the office of faculty development.

“I don’t think were doing a very good job, particularly in for the tenured professors,” Wall said. “We need to be able to get resources and discover the needs of the faculty.”

As vice president, Wall said she would keep on top of the national direction and the state needs.

One of those trends has been online education.

“Students can find knowledge in internet education, we can not ignore it,” Wall said. “However, it has to be practical for our faculty and consistent with our mission.”

Wall said Eastern will probably do more with class enhancement than it will with online degree programs, but online certification of returning teachers might be appropriate and is a demand in the state.

Wall also noted that the graduate assistant stipends need to be raised.

“We are extremely far behind, I strongly support an increase through the salary pool,” Wall said, inferring that if the stipends were paid for out of the “salary pool” they would be regularly increased by state funding.

Wall stated the graduate studies program is a “critical” part of the university in not only attracting quality faculty but also for providing “mentors for undergraduate students.”

“Though, it is not so large, I will continue to support it,” Wall said.

The subject of the possible moving of Information Technology Services’ technicians from under business affairs to under academic affairs was brought to Wall’s attention by David Pollard, microcomputer support specialists.

Wall indicated that some changes along those lines might need to be made.

“We have got to make sure (the technicians) have interactions with academic affairs, that is the concern faculty have,” Wall said. “The move is to facilitate the intent to intregrate priorities.”

“Right now I feel (ITS and Academic Affairs)have a different set of priorities,” Wall said to Pollard.

Wall also offered her idea for a new niche for Eastern.

“We do quite well with faculty to student relations,” Wall said.

Wall said her idea is to expand that to a “faculty-undergraduate research mentoring” initiative.

“We could make it our specialty,” Wall said.

Wall first experienced Eastern when hired as dean of the College of Sciences in 1995, were she stayed until being appointed as interim provost and vice president for academic affairs.

Before her career at Eastern, Wall worked for about 20 years at Ohio State University were she received her Ph.D. in Audiology.

Wall served in positions at Ohio State that ranged from research assistant to chair of the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences.

Three other candidates for the position of vice president for academic affairs will be coming to campus for interviews. After interviews are over, the search committee, chaired by Bonnie Irwin, will convene and send three names to President Carol Surles, who will make the final decision.