Indiana State University Newsroom

Joshua Powers has been named associate vice president for student success at Indiana State University, Jack Maynard, ISU's provost and vice president for academic affairs, announced today.

A faculty member in Indiana State's Bayh College of Education since 2000, Powers served as interim associate vice president for student success this past year and prior to that as special assistant to the provost for academic initiatives. Prior to his work in the Provost's Office, he served as chairperson for the department of educational leadership and foundations.

"Dr. Powers has provided strong leadership for the new Strategic Enrollment Management Plan designed to focus our energies on those things most crucial to student retention and completion including enhancing the contribution of the student residential experience," Maynard said. "He will also be responsible for a new unit focused on teaching excellence and for the integration of campus student support services via a reconfigured Center for Student Success (formerly the Student Academic Services Center) serving all students and a planned Math and Writing Learning Commons located in the library."

Powers said he is excited about being named to the position, an opportunity he described as a way to further lift up the centrality of student achievement and of the contribution of both the in- and out-of-class experience to enabling students to realize their educational goals. He will assume his new position July 1.

"It has been a joy working with so many faculty and staff who care so deeply about students," he said. "The two year commitment that ISU has made to me through this position is one that I intend to use to continue to build strong partnerships for student success since our students do not see us as independent entities, rather part of a broader system. Indiana State University can be a model for how an institution serves a broad range of students, most especially first generation, low income, and minority students, the exact profile that our state and nation are laser focused on right now and that we have in critical mass."

Powers holds a bachelor's degree in economics with a minor in English from the University of Vermont as well as a master's in college student personnel administration and doctorates in higher education and business from Indiana University. He was an American Council on Education Fellow between 2009-10 with placements in the office of the president at Wright State University and the University of Vermont. In 2012, he was a Theodore Dreiser Research and Creativity Award winner and writes and consults in the arena of academic entrepreneurship.

Photo: http://isuphoto.smugmug.com/Other/Headshot-Proofs/Powers-Josh/i-NJDD3Bx/0/L/03_22_12_headshots-9925-L.jpg