Sean Sullivan, vice provost for enrollment and planning, has created two new positions in his office in an effort to beef up graduate student recruitment efforts across the university, as well as improve the experience of the "first-year" student at UB.

Katherine G. Ferguson, administrative director of the MBA Program and assistant dean in the School of Management, has been named associate vice provost for graduate student recruitment services. Regina Toomey, assistant vice provost and director of admissions, will assume an expanded role and a new title-associate vice provost for new student recruitment programs.

	Ferguson
	Toomey

In appointing Ferguson to her new position, Sullivan pointed out that until now, there hasn't been a "concerted and coordinated approach to graduate recruitment at the university.We needed a real pro to come in and work with the deans to develop their own recruitment programs at the graduate level," he said, praising Ferguson's efforts with the MBA program. "We'd like to take her expertise and make it available to the whole university."

The move stems, in part, from the push by Provost Elizabeth C. Capaldi to increase enrollment at the master's level, Sullivan noted. UB won't make its aggressive graduate enrollment targets-up to 9,400 by 2004-05 from the fall 2000 enrollment of 8,144-if a focused recruitment effort is not undertaken, he added.

Sullivan said that while some units-specifically law and management-have proven very successful at recruiting students, there are others with growth potential-including education, engineering and some units in Arts and Sciences-that could use some help. "If we can really target those growth areas, and the way we approach (potential) students, we can make a dent in the (enrollment) figures," he said.

As to Toomey's new position, Sullivan said she would "step back" from the day-to-day operations of the admissions office to focus on improving the UB experience for the "new" student-from students' first point of contact with the university through the enrollment process and through their first year at UB.

"We spend so much time just managing the annual (recruitment) cycle that we don't step back and look at our overall recruitment effort," he said. "We don't talk to students about how we come across; we don't do enough research."

Toomey will "start to think about the whole experience we provide to the new student, to both the prospective student and the student once they're first here," he said.

Toomey will continue to be responsible for the Office of Admissions, as well as the administrative and advisement aspects of the University Honors Program. In addition, she will assume responsibility for the Office of Transfer and Articulation Services, and will represent Enrollment and Planning "in new partnerships with Student Affairs on behalf of first-year undergraduates," Sullivan said, adding that she will coordinate the academic aspect of orientation activities.

He noted that although Toomey will continue to oversee admissions, a national search will be conducted to hire a new director to manage the day-to-day functions of the admissions office.

The new director should have experience in the metro New York and out-of-state marketplaces-the main areas where there is growth potential for UB, as well as in building an alumni recruiting programs.

"I think an untapped resource for us has been our alumni in recruiting, especially in metro New York; we have a big alumni base down there, and we're not tapping them like we can," he said.