What are your hobbies and passions?

I do love UTM. That is part of my passion. My passion for UTM runs very deep. I enjoy working with students, which is certainly a big passion of mine. I get a lot of energy from working with students. I am a family man. I love doing things with my children. We enjoy the outdoors. At one point in time I enjoyed playing a lot of racquetball.

How did your undergraduate experience shape who you are today?

When I was a student here at UTM, I can think of the number of faculty and staff that made impressions on me and shaped me. In some ways, that’s what we do here at UTM… influence people and shape them to give them what they need academically and socially.

What do you see as one of the biggest challenges that face student affairs?

Some of our challenges deal with how we’re finances and how we can accumulate the resources that we need to serve students. Needs change and cultures change.

What is your philosophy toward student discipline? That particular office takes most all of our cases. From a philosophical point of view, there are students who from time to time stub their toe in their environment and do some things that cause them to break a policy or rule. There are degrees of discipline. Our philosophy of discipline is one that involves counseling, making sure that they understand the policy. Each case is different. We try to be as fair and as open as we possibly can. We like to be the students’ advocate in the situation.

What is your management style? I am one that engages people. I want input from everybody. This is our university. My style calls for gathering people together on issues, working through things, putting things on the table and having a plan. I would be very open and very engaging.

What have you done so far that relates to diversity? We have always encouraged the promotion and celebration of differences. Along with that, we need to celebrate in those ways that we are alike. We have a wonderful environment here with so many different nationalities and cultures. The student affairs office is a major player and contributor in the civil rights conference. I am very proud of our minority affairs office this particular year.

How would you increase a bond between academic and student affairs? A lot of it has to do with communicating with one another. This is an academic community first and foremost. There are ways where you can take everything that goes on in academics and then enhance that through the extracurricular life here at UTM. We always need to be communicating as how we can do things best in both areas. It is impetrative that we have good harmonious relationships with the academic world.