BY DANTE FUOCO and AMELIA POSSANZA

In print | Published March 25, 2010

In an e-mail to the official staff-faculty mailing list on Wednesday morning, President Rebecca Chopp announced that on July 1 Garikai Campbell ’90, acting dean of students, will become the Special Assistant to the President and Associate Vice President for Planning.

A member of Student Council, who requested anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the information, forwarded this e-mail to The Phoenix late yesterday night. A faculty member forwarded this e-mail to the source late yesterday afternoon.

“In his new role, Kai will serve as a liaison from the president’s office to the community to help facilitate our direction setting process and preparations for our next capital campaign,” Chopp said in the e-mail. “In addition, he will undertake special projects for the Board of Managers and the College such as researching best practices in liberal arts colleges and investigating emerging trends in higher education.”

Campbell will fill this newly-created position for up to two years, according to the e-mail. It will be funded by an unspecified “special gift to the college.”

“It’s disconcerting that in a climate where we’re trying to build trust and transparency … there was no student input,” the anonymous source said. “The creation of this position should be put to debate with the student body, especially since this is a time of economic constraint and [the new position] is a big purchase.”

The Phoenix will continue covering this late-breaking story and will post any new information to its website and in next week’s print issue.

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