Meet the Other Old Boss: Our VPAA Also Steps Down

Another big announcement today indicating change at the top:

Dr. Cecelia Wittmayer, Vice President for Academic Affairs at Dakota State University announced her retirement today, effective June 2013.

Dr. Wittmayer has been a part of the institution since 1986, when she was hired as an assistant professor in marketing.  After a marketing career in the direct-mail catalog industry, she taught marketing/ advertising at DSU from 1986-1990.  In 1990, she took a three-year leave to earn a Ph.D. in Business Administration/Marketing from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.  She returned to her faculty appointment at DSU in 1993 and received a promotion to associate professor in 1995 and to full professor in 2001. In October 1998, she was asked to serve as interim vice president for academic affairs and was named to the position in June 1999 after a national search.

She has been responsible for the academic integrity of the institution and for the resolution of conflicts involving academic areas.  As VPAA, she supervised the deans and directors of the academic support areas; she also represented the institution on the system-wide Academic Affairs Council.  Most importantly, Dr. Wittmayer has shaped DSU’s academic programs and was instrumental in getting approval from the SD Board of Regents for master’s degree programs and in adding the doctoral program in 2005.  She also was responsible for moving the institution to the AQIP accreditation process, the adoption of the CQI perspective, and most recently wrote the university’s 2012 system portfolio for the Higher Learning Commission.  Dr. Wittmayer has been a member of Delta Kappa Gamma, Delta Mu Delta and the American Association of University Women.  In addition to being an AQIP Strategy Forum Facilitator and Peer Reviewer, she has published a number of articles spanning a 20- year period on a variety of topics.

Dr. Wittmayer’s influence at Dakota State University will be felt for a long time past her retirement.  I know you will join me in wishing her well as she spends more time in her gardens and reading on her front porch.

A national search for her replacement will begin shortly.

Here too, as with the change at the Arts and Sciences dean's position, we hope that change will go smoothly and the results will be good.