Sonoma state welcomes new VP

COURTESY// csus.edu

Sonoma State University President, Mike Lee announced on Monday, April 24 that he has appointed Dr. Edward Mills as the new Vice President of Strategic Enrollment for a three-year term. The position is currently held by Dr. Elias Lopez who will retire in June. Lee states that Lopez has been given a, “Universal thanks of the whole campus for building a strong team and a bold and visionary Strategic Enrollment Management Plan.”

Lee also states that, “Dr. Mills will build on the great work done by our current Strategic Enrollment team, led by Dr. Elias Lopez. Dr. Mills has a proven track record with advancing enrollment in his previous roles so we are excited to have him lead our efforts here.”

Mills arrives at SSU with more than 30 years of experience in enrollment management, student affairs, and software development. At Sacramento State, he served as Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management and Student Support for the last 16 years as well as Vice President for Student Affairs for the last 9 years. Lee states, “He led Sac State’s efforts to achieve federal designation as a Hispanic-Serving and API-Serving Institution.”

Promoting diversity on campus is something that Olivia Blades, a fourth-year psychology major, hopes to see, “I think as a person of color, actually bringing in diversity is so important because it’s so emphasized here. There should be more of a black presence at this school. If diversity in enrollment increases, a lot of students would feel more comfortable.” 

While it will take some time to see if diversity at SSU increases, enrollment in general is important to many college campuses currently. The May 2023 graduating class is nearly 37% of the total student body. Lee states that it is something worth celebrating, but that enrollment will likely be lower next year and won’t see increases until 2024-25. This is not a problem unique to SSU as the CSU system has seen enrollment decreases as a whole due to the pandemic and other factors.

With the current enrollment goal of 7,810 students by 2026-2027, Lee has decided to elevate the Vice Presidential position in Strategic Enrollment to a cabinet-level position. He states, “The position will report directly to me to emphasize the importance of enrollment management to the future success of the campus and to ensure that the campus leadership team works interdivisionally to support recruitment and retention.”

There has been a lot of discussion about enrollment around campus among students and faculty, but Marisol Berta, a second-year psychology major, seems confident in this new shift in leadership, saying, “It seems like Dr. Mills has a lot of experience, so I feel comfortable putting some trust there. I would like to see more students here so that tuition and fees won’t increase.” 

Mills will be supervising Outreach and Recruitment, Office of Records and Registration, and Admissions, as well as work closely with Strategic Communications, the Advising Center, Academic Affairs, Student Affairs, Advancement and others to maximize enrollment efforts. 

Until his first day on August 20, Provost Karen Moranski will be supervising the units in Strategic Enrollment. 

Lee states, “We look forward to welcoming Dr. Mills to our campus and leadership team in the fall. We are making progress on enrollment, and I appreciate the efforts that faculty, staff, students, and administrators have made to increase our student population.”