After a search committee interviewed three candidates interested in the Vice President of Student Affairs position, it was determined that more time was necessary to satisfy the university’s need for a candidate worthy of replacing retiring VP Karen Rigg.
As the search committee continues to interview candidates, Senior Vice President for Enrollment Management and Student Affairs Philomena Mantella has begun the groundwork to create a new era in Student Affairs by restructuring the office, in hopes to increase efficiency in student services and resources.
The restructuring comes at a perfect time, said Mantella, adding that it will benefit the student experience at Northeastern. But, at the same time, 17 years of service will end abruptly for the current Dean of Student Life Ron Martel, whose job will not exist by fall semester.
“Ron Martel has been at the university for some time,” Mantella said in a phone interview from her home in New Jersey. “He was viewing himself as ready for the Vice President of Student Affairs role and therefore wanted to be considered as a candidate.”
Martel did interview for the position, but was not chosen as one of the three candidates that went through the formal interviewing process.
With the restructuring throughout the student affairs office, jobs will be combined in an effort to create more symmetry and more balance, Mantella said. The restructuring, she said, will “flatten” the way in which the office is constructed currently, to eliminate the current hierarchy that exists in Student Affairs.
The current Vice President of Student Affairs Karen Rigg said with the restructuring, the job description of the position she held for 13 years will change dramatically.
“I personally think it will attract a different kind of candidate,” Rigg said. “I’m sure the staff will try to make it work, but the question is, will the students be affected?”
When Martel was first informed in March that his position, Dean of Student Life, would not exist after restructuring, he said he was shocked and numb.
“I felt so many emotions at that point I was surprised, dismayed and confused,” he said. “I was very disappointed, I never thought this would be the outcome.”
Rigg said that shortly after Martel was informed of the restructuring he came to her and said, “[NU] is home, and suddenly, this isn’t home.”
Martel said when he was first hired by Northeastern in 1983 as Director of Residential Life, he only expected to stay for five or six years, but he fell in love with the university.
“I was highly motivated by the student population over the years, and I will miss this tremendous affinity that has grown,” he said. “Regrets, I have none. Sure you wish the trek could have continued, but I also know that there is a new day.”
One individual who has worked alongside Martel during his time at Northeastern was Dean of Student Services James Keith Motley, who will also leave the university this summer to take a vice chancellorship at the University of Massachusetts-Boston.
Motley said he learned a lot from Martel over the years.
“He’s always been supportive, like a brother — with a level of professionalism,” he said. “I became a professional, I grew into it. He was always a professional.”
Although disappointed, Martel said that he respects President Richard Freeland for his persistence and drive to work towards one of his major goals, reaching U.S. News and World Report’s Top 100.
“I sense this is all going to come together. Northeastern is certainly well on its way,” Martel said. “But, I can’t predict how successful it will be.”
One of his hopes, he said, is that the students will remain a top priority for the university administration.
“In my heart of hearts, I hope the senior administrators keep the focus on the students. They are the reason why we are seeing such greatness at Northeastern,” he said. “As Jack Curry once said, ‘The students are the center of what we do.’ They are why we are here.”
