Earlier last Friday, the Department of Student Affairs held a candidate forum open to faculty, staff and students. The faculty attended an open forum for active searches for Associate Vice President of Student affairs. The Department of Student Affairs has three candidates that qualified for the position, those candidates include Dr. Markel Quarles, Dr. Ne’Shaun Jones and Dr. Brad Petitfils.
Andy Klingelhoef, Intern Associate Vice President and Dean of Students, had his thoughts about the three candidates. “I actually enjoyed meeting all three candidates. I thought that they all had good solid strengths. Some might fit better at Stanislaus than others, but I thought that all three of them can do the job as needed. But they all cared deeply about students and student success and that they any of them can do the job very well,” said Klingelhoef.
Dr. Brad Petitfils, Senior Director of Advising and Academic Success from the University of North Carolina Asheville, presented forty slides to the open forum. He mentioned that he taught faculty how to use Blackboard during his early moments of his academic career.
He then presented his professional portfolio and his pedigree into pursuing his job at the University of North Carolina Asheville.
Petitfils then described his approach to problem-solving through data. Petitfils said “I always approach data from my humanistic point of view rather than a statistician point of view.”
Petitfils summarized that data can address a problem by notifying it to the administration. He added that he can usher in things for the needs for students.
After he summarized ways to address the handling of “sensitive” data. Jim Tuedio, Dean of College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, shared his thoughts about the candidate. “He [Petitfils] has made it clear that he understands the importance of those connections and has experience across the spectrum of things from data, to teaching himself, to working on student success initiatives,” said Tuedio.
“He’ll be open to a conversation about new practices that integrate well in what they are doing.” “So, I feel he [Petitfils] is open to those kind of conversations and that’s a critical important thing for us to look forward,” said Tuedio.
When asked about his thoughts about the event. Tuedio found open forums a little limiting because they are kind of  “abstract” for the qualifications about the candidate.
Tuedio explained how the candidate forum for Student Affairs works, because the candidate has to tell the faculty their life story and their professional career to explain their experience, “So, when they are telling their life story about what they had done and their professional past. I think there is so much mileage that’s really coming out of that through us,” said Tuedio
He summarized that this event gave us a chance to review the candidates and to see our reaction to them.