Earl Seaver

Communicative Disorders chair named vice provost

by Joe King

Earl "Gip" Seaver believes there is a whole lot more to enrollment management than just getting students to campus.

"Enrollment management means not only attracting students to NIU, but also retaining them, ensuring the quality of their education and making sure that they get proper guidance along the way," Seaver said. "Once we get them here we want to make sure they have a great experience. We need to make sure that undergraduate students have a good understanding of all the possibilities open to them here at NIU."

That attitude helped him stand out from a field of 32 candidates who applied for the position of vice provost at NIU. Provost Ivan Legg announced Seaver's selection for the post last week.

Seaver, a fixture in the Department of Communicative Disorders for 28 years, will begin his new job July 1, replacing Interim Vice Provost Bob Wheeler, who has served in the position for 2½ years.

While Legg shares Seaver's ideas about enrollment management, he is quick to point out that is but one area where he expects Seaver to excel.

"The person in this job is responsible for a wide range of tasks, and throughout his career at NIU, Gip Seaver has demonstrated the skills and flexibility required to succeed in this position. I look forward to having him in our office," Legg said.

His leadership experience and familiarity with the university counted heavily with the search committee.

"The committee felt that Gip's leadership style would be a good fit for the job," said Heather Hardy, chair of the Department of English, who led the search. "He is a well-respected, long-time department chair with a great deal of experience in the variety of areas that are under the oversight of the vice provost's office."

Those areas of oversight are many. The vice provost's job is divided into three main branches of responsibility:
n providing broad oversight of the activities of the undergraduate enrollment services;
n coordinating committees and activities that relate to the undergraduate curriculum, to academic standards, and generally to the undergraduate educational experience and academic environment, and
n coordinating the work of the four colleges of the university that administer teacher certification programs, in collaboration with the Committee on Initial Teacher Certification and the deans of these colleges.

Seaver is eager for the challenge.

"I'm really looking forward to the fact that you get to interact with many different constituencies across campus. As a department chair, you work pretty much within your own unit," said Seaver, who has chaired the Department of Communicative Disorders since 1990. "This will allow me to work with every facet of the institution and with so many very talented people across campus."

One challenge that will cut across all areas of his responsibility is the current economic climate. It means there will be little funding to institute any sweeping changes.

"This is not a good time to be talking about new programs," he said. "However, we have a lot of great resources on campus. We just need to make sure that we maximize the effectiveness of what we do. When finances are tight, it always makes for bigger challenges, but we are pretty resourceful around here."

Seaver earned a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in speech pathology at Western Michigan University, before moving on to the University of Iowa, where he earned his Ph.D. in speech sciences. He came to NIU in 1975 as an assistant professor in communicative disorders. His time in that department has included 11 years as director of the Speech and Hearing Clinic and 13 years as chair of the department.

Seaver and his wife, Pamela Jackson, a professor of audiology at NIU, live in DeKalb. Their daughter, Randi, is a sophomore in pre-business at NIU. They have a younger daughter, Kari, a junior at DeKalb High School. Seaver also has a son Troy, who lives in Michigan with his wife, Penny, and their son, Quinn.

3-17-2003