Diego Saldana-Rojas/Nadra Mabrouk
FIUSM Staff
With 15 years of experience as Vice President of Student Affairs in Boston College and John Carroll University, a private Jesuit University, Patrick Rombalski is among three candidates to take over the Vice President of Student Affairs position at the University.
Larry Lunsford has served as Interim Vice President of Student Affairs since August 2012, and Rombalski is the first of the three candidates to speak to students and faculty at open forums which were held at Modesto Maidique Campus and Biscayne Bay Campus April 4 through April 5.
Students at BBC shared their complaints about limited food options at the campus, the aging condition of Bay Vista Housing that drives students away from living on the campus, as well as how there is a large imbalance between campuses at the University.
Rombalski believes that in order to get over the imbalances between campuses, it would be beneficial not to compare each campus to the other but to think of what is unique to each campus and build upon those qualities to attract students to want to be at each campus for a different reason.
Students also brought up how important it is to engage students in any decision-making because everything essentially affects the students.
He believes that it takes the students’ voice to make changes on a university campus.
“You have the skill to do it, but you also need the will to do it.”
The $2.50 Golden Panther Express shuttle was also a topic of concern as the Wi-Fi on the shuttles is problematic.
MMC students brought up issue of parking at MMC as well as a lack of student involvement on campus.
Other questions brought up by students at the MMC panel were geared towards how Rombalski performed while at BC and how he would implement his experiences there to the University.
Desiree Hernandez, junior English major, asked Rombalski how he would assimilate to the diverse student population that makes up the University to which Rombalski responded he “really looked forward to,” understanding the diverse student communities and seeing “how they are represented, how they identify, how they understand themselves and how they relate to their local community.”
He cited his work in helping found a non-profit organization in Ecuador which he ran for approximately 20 years and his work in the Caribbean and other parts of Latin America
In response to a students question as to how we would help the student retention rate, Rombalski said, “In my mind, if you focus on students and you’re doing the best possible job to improve their experiences and you’re looking at specific populations and coming up with population based responses whether its greek life or first generation students or what have you then
then you’re going to move the retention rate,” said Rombalski.
The other two candidates running for the position are Vicki Mcneil and Brian Haynes.
Mcneil will speak on Wednesday April 10 in GC 243 from 2:30 p.m. to 3:45 p.m. and at BBC April 11 in WUC 155 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:15 p.m.
Haynes will speak on April 17th at MMC in the West Ballroom from 2:30 p.m. to 3:45pm and at BBC on April 18th in WUC 223 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:15 p.m.
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