Albert Zainea, candidate for student affairs VP: ‘Rapid change’ necessary over next two years

Albert Zainea, candidate for Chief Executive of Academia, speaks with an audience during an open forum Tuesday morning in the Lake Huron room of the Bovee University Center. (Jeffrey Smith/Staff Photographer)

Albert Zainea said one of Central Michigan University’s big focuses needs to be the Global Campus.

Zainea, the first of three finalists scheduled for open forums for the Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs position was held on Tuesday.

About 30 administrators, faculty members and students attended the forum for Zainea, currently the director of undergraduate programs and Academic Liaison at CMU.

Zainea is responsible for overseeing undergraduate programs through CMU’s Global Campus, establishing academic prioritization assessments and handling various issues pertaining to students’ rights and responsibilities.

“The CMU Global Campus is an ever-changing environment, and as a potential candidate for the assistant vice president position I believe it is important to be able to adapt to change,” Zainea said.

The assistant vice president for student affairs will be responsible for the management, development and coordination of services, programs and activities designed to complement and enhance the whole student experience, including programs such as career services, student life and the leadership institute.

Immediate priorities for Zainea include assessing each area that is overseen by the Office of Student Affairs and developing a mission statement, perspectives, priorities and benchmarks, if they are not already in place.

“I believe that change can occur rapidly or slowly, however I believe here at CMU, radical change is necessary within the next two years,” Zainea said. “These changes need to be made not for the sake of change, but for the betterment of student experience and success.”

Among the changes that Zainea believes need to be made are things such as requiring students to stay in the residence halls for their sophomore year. Zainea said this change would help create a meaningful experience for students, due to the possibility of the academic calendar being shortened.

This would allow residence life employees more time to interact with students and create life-impacting experiences through their time spent in the residence halls, he said.

“While this isn’t a change that is going to be made effective immediately, I believe that this is one of those conversations that needs to take place,” Zainea said.

Another challenge that the Office of Student Affairs faces regards the Leadership Safari and the possibility that it would have to take place over Labor Day weekend as opposed to the entire week before classes start.

One possibility Zainea proposes is to take the Leadership Safari experience to some of CMU’s off-campus locations.

“Being as about 95 percent of our students come from the metro Detroit area, why not utilize the CMU off-campus locations such as our campuses in Livonia, Troy and Warren for hosting Leadership Safari events?” Zainea said. “As opposed to students coming on campus for the Leadership Safari experience, why not bring the experience to them?”

Zainea said he values the opinions and concerns of not only his own employees, but also those of students. If elected, he hopes to have more interaction with the Student Government Association in order to make sure that student voices are being heard.

Open forums for the remaining candidates, Anthony Voisin and Jason Bentley, will be held Wednesday and Thursday from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. in the Lake St. Clair room of the Bovee University Center.