Erek Perry has joined the staff of the College of Arts and Sciences as the assistant to the dean for recruitment and retention. Dean Leslie Flemming said that Mr. Perry's role in recruiting and retaining students will be of great benefit to the College.
I'm very pleased that Erek agreed to join the staff of the College. With his excellent experience in residential life and admissions, Erek will be an enormous help to us. He will also be especially important in enabling the College to fulfill our own and the university's goals for increased diversity in our student body.
Mr. Perry received a master's of education degree from Ohio University in 1995 and a B.A. in social science from Shawnee State University, Portsmouth, Ohio, in 1992. He was the admissions counselor/program coordinator at Ohio University from 1993 to 1995, the administrator for the Department of Residence Life from 1995 to 1997, and the assistant director of admissions from 1997 to 1998. Mr. Perry said about his plans for his new position:
My role embodies two major responsibilities: first, to increase enrollment both in the overall number of students and in particular the number of students of color; second, to retain students once they have selected the College of Arts and Sciences. The recruiting plan involves implementing a mixture of marketing strategies and a series of recruitment activities to increase enrollment.The plan for retention is to be proactive in improving the services we provide to our students. This will be accomplished through research, surveys, evaluations, focus-group discussions, and empirical data. Information will be gathered from currently enrolled students, faculty, and staff.
Mr. Perry said that he believes that diverse experiences in college are critical to intellectual and social success, especially as they relate to preparing students for a "real world" that is becoming more diverse every day--bringing with it the likelihood that students "will have to work with someone who may be different from them in philosophy, principles, culture, experiences, upbringing, class, religion, ethnicity, and so forth." He added:
In essence, having diverse experiences in college becomes a social good because students do not only become more aware of their own existence but also become aware of the existence of others who are different from them. I believe the more aware our students are of political, cultural, social and economic varieties, the more competent they will be in making complex decisions and solving complex problems.