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BREAKING: Steven Johnson hired for new vice president position

By Mike Nichols on November 3, 2011 4:08 pm in Administration / 14 comments

 

Steven Johnson has accepted Central Michigan University’s offer to become the first vice president of Enrollment and Student Services.

Johnson, Howard University’s associate vice president for Enrollment Management, was formerly CMU’s director of operations and professional development from 1997 to 2000. He has spent 27 years working in higher education.

Johnson’s new position will report to University President George Ross as part of the executive leadership team. He will be responsible for the Admissions Office, the Office of Scholarship and Financial Aid, Academic Support Services, the Office of Student Life, the Counseling Center and part of the Office of Residence Life.

The position will become effective in January 2012. Johnson will receive an annual salary of $200,000.

CMU informed the university community of the decision by publishing a news story on the CMU website Thursday.

“It is my privilege to be able to return to CMU and have the opportunity to work with members of the university community in achieving strategic enrollment goals while enhancing the student experience,” Johnson said in the release. “As the societal landscape changes, it is critical for colleges and universities to have a strategy to guide their efforts. I look forward to leading CMU’s work in this area.”

Johnson was hired after a national search which began last spring. He was one of two finalists who toured this semester, the other being Cherise Peters, former associate vice president for enrollment services and registrar at Georgia State University.

The hiring decision was made by Ross.

“This position is critical to our university as we address the declining number of high-school graduates,” Ross said in the release. “Not only must we compete for the best and brightest students, but we must be innovative in our approach to setting tuition, financial aid and creating the best academic environment for our students to enhance retention and ensure their success.”

Johnson earned a B.B.A in computer information systems from Davenport University and an M.A. in college student personnel from Eastern Michigan University. He has an M.L.E. from Harvard University, which he received in management and leadership in education.

During his open forum, Johnson said his vision for CMU is to create a collaborative model between the departments in order to integrate students into a unified system.

 

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  • Max

    Because, you know, the one thing this university needs is more administrators

  • 912

    $200,000? $200,000! For another George Ross crony who wandered the academic desert and now returns to the Promised Land at CMU.

    Another layer of bureaucracy. Another example of where the administration’s true priorities lie. Un-frickin-believable.

  • Michmediaperson

    $200,000??????

    Are you kidding.

    This guy makes more $$ than the Governor and any our congressional members.

    What exactly is this guy going to do every hour, every day that our Director of Admissions isn’t doing and all these other department heads aren’t doing???? 

    Why couldn’t George Ross have left his moonlighting job at the furniture company and spend the time himself coordinating Admissions, Financial Aid, Academic Support Services, Office of Student Life, Counseling Center and Residence Life.  Couldn’t this group of 6-7 or so get together and strategize and see it was carried out and save CMU $200,000 plus the cost of benefits.  All these department heads should be reporting to George, not another layer of bureaucracy.  The flatter an organizational structure, the better.  Operate lean and mean.  We operate bloated with high-priced overhead!!

    This is why college costs are skyrocketing!!

    Address the declining number of high-school graduates and competing for the best and brightest??
    George, get rid of the slow-moving and PC majors and minors, rid yourself of couple hundred faculty members and staff members and bring tuition down to $170 to $200 an hour.  George, you will have a traffic jam on campus of the elite students from U-M, MSU, WMU, EMU, GVSU, etc. flocking to CMU.  Our average student GPA and test scores will skyrocket!
    We will be competing with the world-renown U of M for undergraduate students.  Here’s the selling point.  The student saves $$$$ and then can attend grad school in Ann Arbor at one of their prestigious Graduate Schools.  Or, they go into the workforce with little student loans! 

    “Create a collaborative model between the departments in order to integrate students into a unified system.”  How did we survive since our founding in the 19th Century?????

    As 912 said, more bureaucracy!!

  • Rightie

    I suspect he was only hired because he is black and CMU likes to practice affirmation action. I would point out that his qualifications, as detailed in this story, do not match what Steven Johnson has on his LinkedIn page at http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dr-steven-g-johnson/36/6a5/a0a. The article claims he went to Davenport University, Easton Michigan University and Harvard University. On LinkedIn, he claims to have attended Howard University for his B.A., Binghampton University for his M.B.A. and the for-profit online University of Phoenix for his PhD. Now perhaps there are two administrative vice presidents named Steven Johnson at Howard University, but I doubt that’s the case. Someone has some explaining to do.

  • Michmediaperson

    I did a google search on this guy. 

    CM LIFE needs to check out exactly what was the financial aid controversy at Howard in 2009.  Boyd Watkins, a professor at Syracuse wrote a critical piece about in some black educational media outlet apparently.  Diddy, the rapper, apparently got involved in this.  Not only read the story, but the comments from Howard students, etc., were interesting.

    Probably wouldn’t hurt if CM LIFE runs a thorough Google search on every administrator, coach, high profile staff member that CM LIFE hires.

    If I recall when Mike Rao was here, one hire had to leave right after the hiring, after CM LIFE did a background check on Yahoo.

    For $200,000, I’m surprised no one at a MAC school, Big Ten school or any big-name schools applied for the job.  Hard to believe.  Can CM LIFE FOI the resumes?

    I’m surprised none of our faculty making $98,000 a year on average applied for this position.

    I’m just wondering, was the compensation figure in the job description.  Perhaps, a lot of people didn’t apply figuring it may only pay $75K-$100K.

    Did our current Director of Admissions have the ability to get promoted?

  • Michmediaperson

    I did a google search on this guy. 

    CM LIFE needs to check out exactly what was the financial aid controversy at Howard in 2009.  Boyd Watkins, a professor at Syracuse wrote a critical piece about in some black educational media outlet apparently.  Diddy, the rapper, apparently got involved in this.  Not only read the story, but the comments from Howard students, etc., were interesting.

    Probably wouldn’t hurt if CM LIFE runs a thorough Google search on every administrator, coach, high profile staff member that CM LIFE hires.

    If I recall when Mike Rao was here, one hire had to leave right after the hiring, after CM LIFE did a background check on Yahoo.

    For $200,000, I’m surprised no one at a MAC school, Big Ten school or any big-name schools applied for the job.  Hard to believe.  Can CM LIFE FOI the resumes?

    I’m surprised none of our faculty making $98,000 a year on average applied for this position.

    I’m just wondering, was the compensation figure in the job description.  Perhaps, a lot of people didn’t apply figuring it may only pay $75K-$100K.

    Did our current Director of Admissions have the ability to get promoted?

  • Sammana6

    This is truly something that should be considered.  What kind of honesty can we expect from this guy if he isn’t accurate about his credentials.  Someone should have checked.

  • Eddie

    someone should seriously look into this because either cm life was wrong with their story about his background or someone, perhaps even him, lied about his credentials. resume inflation isn’t a new thing; it’s just that people are getting caught now because of Google.

  • Eddie

    His qualifications do not merit earning more than the governor of the State of Michigan. According to the other person who posted on here, he went to an online diploma mill (University of Phoenix); that hardly qualifies as a proper institution. I don’t agree with the union much, if ever, but this is an example of an administration action that is absurd. The Board of Trustees should block this appointment, especially if it turns out his credentials aren’t what they were reported. His only qualification seems to be that he is black and was formerly at CMU, when George Ross was here back in the day.

  • Michmediaperson

    The Board should block this and put George Ross in charge of these department heads.  Get him to give up his outside interests.  If we have people who aren’t giving 100 percent to CMU and the Mt. Pleasant community, then they need to find employment elsewhere.

    Great article today (Sunday) in the Free-Press how the middle-class is being shut out at Michigan’s four-year schools.

    George, here’s a tip.  Do you know about to get higher retention?  Lower costs which lowers tuition costs.  That means getting rid of all the PC nonsense and courses and all the research baloney and medical schools. 

  • Anonymous

    Sexist.

  • Mike Nichols

    Rightie,

    Thank you for reading my writings. I appreciate your concern about Steven Johnson’s honesty regarding his resume, and just wanted to clarify something for you and the rest of my readers.

    The reason that Steven Johnson’s qualifications in my article do not match the qualifications of the LinkedInpage you have posted is simple:

    The LinkedIn page you have posted actually belongs to a different man named Steven Johnson.

    Sincerely, Mike Nichols, CM-Life senior reporter

  • MoreRight

    Hey guys…I checked online and there are definitely two Steven Johnsons. One is Steven L. Johnson whose credentials check out as this guy and the other is Steven G. Johnson who has the other post at HU. It is a pretty common name but I wanted to be sure so I called Howard University just to check and found out there are definitely two. There doesn’t appear to be any lies on the credentials…just a mistake by Rightie.

  • MoreRight

    I also checked and Steven L. Johnson was not at HU in 2009- he was at Pace University in New York City.