Senior Associate Provost and Dean of Continuing Studies Billy Weitzer is resigning after 15 years in the University’s administration and taking the position of senior vice president at Fairfield University in mid-October, citing the need to “grow.”
“I’ve had a great time at Wesleyan,” Weitzer said. “I’ve been given progressively exciting assignments and titles, but there comes a time that if I really want to grow, I needed to look elsewhere. This opportunity at Fairfield fits perfectly with the kind of broader assignments that I was looking for.”
During his tenure here, Weitzer was responsible for overseeing the E-portfolio’s creation, heading the committee that designed the Freeman Athletic Center addition, and establishing the Student Academic Resource Network (SARN).
In Weitzer’s new position at Fairfield, he will serve as principal advisor and chief of staff to President Jeffrey von Arx. He will also be in charge of implementing Fairfield’s new multi-million dollar strategic plan, according to a Fairfield University press release.
President Doug Bennet’s upcoming spring departure was not a prominent factor in Weitzer’s decision, but it was “a factor,” Weitzer said.
“What Wesleyan’s structure will be like in two years is an unknown, so if I wanted to do something like this, I had to go somewhere else,” Weitzer said. “If I did not have this good opportunity, I would not have left Wesleyan. It was the right time for my career and my family.”
Bennet announced his support for Weitzer’s achievements and his latest career move.
“Billy has been a trusted colleague and adviser to me, as well as an important contributor to policy discussions at the senior staff table,” Bennet wrote in a campus-wide e-mail announcing Weitzer’s resignation. “He always has served Wesleyan with its highest purposes in his heart. I know you join me in wishing him the best in this exciting new venture.”
According to Bennet, Weitzer has made several significant contributions to the University’s academic infrastructure and overall administration.
“Billy has played a leading role in Wesleyan’s strategic planning efforts,” Bennet wrote. “Among his many accomplishments have been implementing such strategic initiatives as the Program in Curricular Renewal, including the development of electronic portfolios; the renovation and technical upgrading of all Wesleyan classrooms; the design of the addition to the Freeman Athletic Center; the implementation of a new online registration system, and, in collaboration with the staff of the Library, the establishment of our new information commons.”
As Dean of Continuing Studies, Weitzer has been in charge of graduate student services, the Graduate Liberal Studies Program (GLSP), programs open to the community, and summer programs, as well as Upward Bound and the Project to Increase Mastery of Mathematics and Science (PIMMS).
“I’m really pleased with what’s happened with the GLSP,” Weitzer said. “Enrollments were dropping. Sometimes the rigor of the courses was being brought into question. With the staff that I hired, that has all changed. Enrollments are up, and more Wesleyan faculty are teaching there than before.”
As the senior associate provost, Weitzer has had oversight of the registrar’s office and institutional research. In the Office of Academic Affairs, he has managed budget and facilities work, among other duties. The problems he has encountered run the gamut of personnel matters, space matters, and academic policies, he said.
“It’s something different everyday,” Weitzer said. “That’s what I like about the job…I’m sort of a switchboard, you could say. People call me and I help solve their problems.”
Weitzer also held an interim role in the Office of the Dean of the College, where he helped alter the dean structure so that class deans stay with their class for four years, Weitzer said.
While in the interim role, Weitzer also collaborated with Sam Ruth ’08 and others involved in SARN, a new program that helps students find resources such as the Writing Workshop, the Career Resource Center, and the Math Workshop.
“It seemed to me that all the services that could help students were spread organizationally,” Weitzer said. “So we got these groups together to talk about the connections: how they could communicate, put out a brochure, put up a website, so that students who are looking for resources have many different entrees and hopefully get referred to the right place.”
Ruth, chair of the WSA’s Educational Policy Committee, said he frequently collaborated with Weitzer on various projects.
“I found Billy to be not only one of the most receptive members of the administration, but that he followed up on our conversations beyond the call of duty,” Ruth said. “In terms of the peer advising program [within SARN], he took the time to write a grant that has helped fund the pilot program for the next two years.”
Weitzer has already received a warm welcome from Fairfield University. In the university website’s news release, von Arx said he could not be more pleased with the outcome of the search, considering the role that Weitzer will play in the implementation of the university’s new strategic plan.
“In Billy Weitzer, Fairfield is getting an individual who has distinguished himself as a leader in higher education administration,” von Arx said in the release. “I’m delighted he has agreed to join the Fairfield community at this critical juncture in the institution’s development. I am confident that Billy’s talents, breadth of experience, along with his enthusiasm, will serve Fairfield well.”
Founded in 1942, Fairfield University is a Jesuit institution in Fairfield, Connecticut, with approximately 5,000 students. It offers both undergraduate and graduate programs.
“Fairfield is a young institution that has really great energy and aspiration,” Weitzer said. “I did a lot of research, both reading about the history of Jesuit education and talking to people who I know working at Jesuit schools, and I found out about how, first and foremost, they value education, and their philosophy behind it—valuing the whole person, being open to different points of view. It’s all really appealing to me.”
But Weitzer will not soon forget his past.
“I’ll miss the students and the staff at Wesleyan,” he said. “They’re just outstanding people to work with.”
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