Written by Jada Dukes, Staff Writer

Interim president Cecil Staton will soon announce his selection for the new Vice President of the office of Student Affairs.

Upon his arrival in July 2015, Dr. Staton had appointed Dr. James Gregory Archibald to the position as Interim Vice President.

In an email sent out to the students and faculty, Dr. Staton stated the following about Gregory, “Dr. Archibald has a reputation for demanding the best from his students, and this passion for excellence will serve the university community well as we
move forward to meet the challenges and opportunities of the coming year.”

Nearly a year later, the search for a permanent Vice President has almost come to an end.

Dean of the Honors College and member of the search committee appointed to select the candidates, Dr. Michael Savoie, said that the search committee has been looking for candidates since last July.

“This is a pretty high-profile search for VSU because the vice president of student affairs has a large impact on student’s lives outside of the academic setting,” Dr. Savoie said.

It was Dr. Savoie’s responsibility to review all of the applications and sort out the best possible choices and then bring them before the search committee who would then condense the list even further before turning over the top candidates to the
president for a final decision.

The top three candidates chosen by the appointed committee are Mr. Tomas Jimenez, Mr. Jason Lambert, and Dr. Vincent Miller. Last week, each of these candidates came to Valdosta to speak with student and faculty about their policies future plans
for VSU. Although there were four separate days for students to meet with each candidate to meet and speak with students, Dr. Savoie said that not many students came to these meetings.

It is not certain when Dr. Staton will announce his selection, but Dr. Savoie said that the announcement will come very soon.

Each of the candidates’ application letters have been posted onto the VSU website. Each letter gives background information for each candidate along with their plans to improve student life on VSU’s campus if selected.