Apr 22, 2008 - 04:05:07 CDT
FARGO (AP) FARGO (AP) - A 35-year-old man who graduated from Fargo South High School and the University of North Dakota has been named the new president of Valley City State University.Steven Shirley, the vice president and dean of student affairs at Dakota State University in South Dakota, was named Monday to replace Ellen Chaffee, who is retiring.
"I love this state and I'm passionate about it," Shirley said. "This is really a homecoming for me. I'm excited to be in this part of the state and this part of the region."
The two finalists were both from South Dakota. The state Board of Higher Education on Monday interviewed Shirley and Blake Faulkner, president of the online campus and system vice president for international affairs at National American University in Rapid City.
John Q. Paulsen, the board president, said both candidates were highly qualified.
"In the final analysis, however, Steven Shirley's professional experience more closely parallels the expectations of the Valley City State University presidency," Paulsen said.
Valley City State and Dakota State are both "laptop, technology-based campuses," Shirley said.
"It's a good fit for my background," he said.
Shirley, a 1990 Fargo South graduate, received his undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degrees from UND. He previously spent seven years as a business faculty member at the University of Minnesota-Crookston.
"He knows everybody in North Dakota," said David DeMuth, a Minnesota-Crookston professor who worked with Shirley. "I'm thrilled that the state would look past age and hire someone with vigor."
Enrollment is the biggest challenge, Shirley said.
"It's a challenge not unlike a lot of universities in our part of the world," he said. "That's going to be first and foremost. That's what drives everything else at an institution."
DeMuth said Shirley has international connections because he served as the director of the study abroad program at Crookston.
"I look for him to stoke up some of the international recruiting efforts," DeMuth said.
Board officials said Shirley will take his new job July 1, with an annual salary of $155,000. He will have a three-year contract.
prof guy wrote on Feb 1, 2009 2:34 PM:
say what wrote on Apr 22, 2008 5:34 PM:
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