MSCHE/ACOE Self Study

6.4 There is an institutional commitment to serving students, including an organizational element devoted to student affairs. The administrative structure of the Office of Student Affairs can be found in Appendix E-1a or at http://www.sunyopt.edu/about/stuaff_vp_office.shtml as can the responsibilities of the professional staff of this office. In addition to two full time staff assistants, the office consists of the vice president for student affairs (VPSA), director of financial aid, registrar, newly created position of director of admission and marketing and a half time minority recruiter (Goal 1.10). Curriculum vitae for the incumbents can be found in Appendices E-1b, E-1c, E- 1d, E-1e and E-1f, respectively. The Office of Student Affairs provides an array of student support services to students in the professional OD program (described in Section 6.4.1, below) as well as to graduate students. For graduate students, however, academic counseling is provided by the associate dean for research and graduate programs. (As discussed in section 6.4.1 below, Academic counseling for optometry students is provided by the Office of Student Affairs.) The VPSA is an officer of the college, reports directly to the college president and is a member of President’s Council. The current VPSA, Dr. Jeffrey Philpott, assumed his responsibilities on July 1, 2010. He directs current and long-range planning for the student affairs area and is responsible for overseeing the activities of the office and its personnel. Currently, the VPSA also acts as the director of admissions for the OD program and, as such, is responsible for the recruitment and administering the admission process. Candidate and student counseling and career opportunities are important aspects of his responsibility. Both the Committee on Admissions and Committee on Scholarships report to this position. The VPSA is responsible for student life and acts as the advisor to the Student Council and other student organizations. Historically, graduate admissions processes at SUNY College of Optometry have been handled separately from those of the professional OD program. At the present time, applications for admission into graduate vision science programs are first processed by the Office of the Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies and then further reviewed by the Committee on Graduate Program, Policy, Admissions and Standing (this is a separate body from the Admissions Committee for the professional OD program). In the future, the associate dean will continue to oversee the Committee on Graduate Program, Policy, Admissions and Standing and have the authority to make admissions decisions for the graduate programs. However, it is anticipated that all admissions processing and data tracking for graduate students at SUNY Optometry will be transferred from the Office of the Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies to the Office of the VPSA/director of admission and marketing at the beginning of the fall 2011 semester. This change in practice is intended to streamline the admissions process for prospective graduate students. The director of admission and marketing, a new position filled in November, 2010, will also create a comprehensive marketing and communication strategy to recruit a greater number of graduate students and further develop key metrics

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