In his first semester as president of Georgia Southern University, Dr. Jaimie Hebert has streamlined the university’s top administration, not refilling vacancies and thus reducing the number of vice presidents from seven to four by 2017. Whether there will be a fifth VP in his cabinet remains under consideration.
He explained his reorganization efforts during a “100 Days” town hall meeting Monday afternoon. In the Nessmith-Lane Conference Center ballroom, Hebert, who took office July 1 as Georgia Southern’s 13th president, reported on results of a survey returned by more than 600 people, plus listening he has done in many encounters with students, professors, staff, alumni and others.

The town hall was open to the general public. The changes, already announced on campus, had shown up as one concern of staff members.

“I believe in a very streamlined, very vertical organizational structure,” Hebert said. “My goal is to pull a team together. I wanted to narrow our administrative structure so that we can promote effective communication, we can promote effective collective visioning and effective messaging.”

Hebert asked faculty and staff to notice that he is not doing away with “any of the wonderful things that we are doing on this campus.” Those things, he said, help maintain the positive climate and cherished traditions described in many of the comments he received.

“What I’m trying to do is position us so that we can move forward,” Hebert said. “I don’t want to be a different university; I want to be a better Georgia Southern.”

But he also said he wants to find “efficiencies” and put most of the money saved to use in teaching. He described the restructuring as limited to “a handful of leadership changes.”

“I don’t foresee other major changes on campus, because those changes alone, along with what we’re hoping, what we’re projecting will come from the state in terms of revenue generation, those savings alone we will reallocate almost entirely into our academic mission,” Hebert said.

Interviewed briefly after his remarks, Hebert said he expects about a $500,000 increase in state enrollment-based funding to Georgia Southern next year, gauging by previous years’ enrollment numbers. That doesn’t include other new money the university will seek in its budget proposal.

VP attrition

In the interview, Hebert also described the changes he has made in top staff and said he is not firing anybody.

“I’m taking opportunities when we have retirements,” he said. “We won’t automatically fill when we have retirements in the administrative level. Faculty, always – we need as many faculty as we can get.”

Vice President for University Advancement Salinda Arthur, whose post also included alumni relations, is retiring at the end of the calendar year.

“Rather than put an interim in that position, I am moving that division under Vice President  Trip Addison, who is currently over government and external  relations, and he’s going to oversee both of those,” Hebert said.

Addison, previously assistant director of the Georgia Environmental Protection Division and before that deputy director of the Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget, was hired as vice president of external affairs last fall by Georgia Southern Provost Dr. Jean Bartels while she was interim president.

Previous GS Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer Steve Burrell left in June to become chief information technology officer at Northern Arizona University. So that vice presidency was vacant when Hebert arrived. He doesn’t plan to refill it.

“Instead, I have a phenomenal technology person, director, here on campus. Ron Stalnaker has agreed to serve as the chief information officer for the university,” Hebert said in the interview. “He’ll be a direct report to me, but it will not be a vice presidential position.”

Additionally, Don McLemore has been serving as interim vice president for research and economic development and as interim director of the university’s Herty Advanced Materials Development Center in Savannah. He has done “a marvelous job,” Hebert said, and so he has made McLemore permanent executive director of the Herty Center while moving his other duties under the provost.

 “I haven’t completely vacated that vice presidency yet,” Hebert said. “We’re going to make a decision on that, whether we’ll put another interim in there or not.”

Otherwise, the result will be four vice presidents.

“That’s a good, solid cabinet to me,” Hebert said. “It’s academics; it’s finance and operations; it’s external relations/advancement; and it is enrollment management and student services. Those are the four pillars of every institution of higher education.”

The number of vice presidents could be expanded again after the university develops a new strategic plan, he added.

Bartels to retire

“Conduct a national search for a provost,” was a suggestion from faculty members, as summarized in Hebert’s slide show.

The university announced on campus Oct. 4 that Dr. Jean Bartels, provost and vice president for academic affairs, plans to retire June 30. She has served in various leadership roles at Georgia Southern for more than 17 years and was interim president for the 2015-16 academic year.

After congratulating Bartels on her plans, Hebert said that a national search will be conducted. He also indicated that he will shift responsibility for the College of Graduate Studies to the provost and said Bartels is helping with the reorganization affecting the provost’s office.

“As we migrate graduate studies over there and probably some of our research institutes under the provost, Jean is being instrumental in setting up organizational structure there to handle that,” Hebert said.

Provost and vice president for academic affairs is the second-in-charge position at Georgia Southern, and was also the job Hebert held previously at Sam Houston State University in Texas.

“The provost’s duties and responsibilities will be expanded under my presidency, I guarantee you that,” he said in the interview.

Survey concerns

Hebert said his First 100 Days Survey was “more qualitative” than quantitative. He issued no written summary and said there were no statistical results. Instead, he selected and summarized concerns and suggestions from different groups.

Other administration and staff concerns included gender and pay disparities and the salary levels of all staff. Parking on campus was a common concern of students, faculty and staff, Hebert reported.

Students had also expressed their interest in improving safety on campus, keeping Georgia Southern’s sense of feeling like a small university while being a large one, and having more support provided for minority students. Hebert related these concerns to principles he emphasizes as defining the role of a public university.

“When we talk about our principles, when we talk about kindness and civility and social responsibility, in my mind minority support, inclusion, diversity, those endeavors are our principles in action,” Hebert said.

Herald reporter Al Hackle may be reached at (912) 489-9458.