A heavy workload is forcing the vice president for business affairs to begin filling eight vacant positions within the office, starting with a new associate vice president for information technology services.

Bill Witsman, who currently holds the position, is retiring on June 14, and Jeff Cooley, vice president for business affairs, said Friday he is ready to advertise for the position this week and hopes to fill the position by June 24. Cooley said he will meet with the Information Technology Services’ staff next week to discuss an acting replacement for Witsman until a permanent employee is hired.

While presenting his ideas to fill vacant positions to the Faculty Senate on April 2, Cooley heard negative feedback from some faculty members who thought filling those positions would further delay the filling of vacant faculty positions.

Cooley said this wouldn’t be the case because there are funds already set aside for his positions.

“We are not taking money from our academic base,” Cooley said. “The funding for these positions is already within my department.

“We are afraid something important is going to go overlooked because we are doing so many things,” he said. “The question is how long can you keep doing three jobs successfully.”

The first position Cooley hopes to fill, associate vice president for information technology services, is responsible for planning the university’s technical direction, Witsman said.

“Whenever technology is in the forefront, I get involved,” Witsman said.

Cooley said he also hopes to fill two additional positions by the end of this fiscal year: the assistant vice president for business affairs and the director of business services/treasurer.

However, the remaining positions will unlikely be filled because of budget problems, he said.

Cooley also hopes to fill, in the future, the director of information system and services, the director of user services, the assistant director of operations, network and equipment technicians, the assistant director of facilities planning and management and the duplicating service supervisor.