After seven years of working for the University, the Vice President for Student Life Dr. Constance Foley has announced that she will be resigning on May 13.
“It’s a good time to leave Slippery Rock University,” Foley said. “My daughter is graduating from Kutztown on the 18. I was hired seven years ago by Bob Smith. I was hired fully committed to his vision for the university, which I saw was very positive especially for student affairs.”
Under President Robert Smith, Foley helped in the creation of new residence halls, the Student Center, intermural fields, and the leadership and service programs on campus.
“We now have a new president,” Foley explained. “She wants to take a different direction and build her own team. Most presidents want to do that. It’s kind of clear that it is time for me to leave.”
With that being said, Foley stated that it was her own decision to leave. While she has been talking about resigning for one month now, she had been looking at potential jobs since last June.
Foley is not sure what she is going to do next, but she confirmed that she has applied for numerous jobs. Previously, she has worked in California, Florida, Michigan, Ohio, and Arizona. With being said, she is willing to go wherever there is a job for her that can utilize her skills.
“I also have the option to retire, but I’m not quite ready to do that yet,” Foley said.
“I’m going to miss a lot of the people here,” Foley said. “Having been here seven years, I have some wonderful people who work in student affairs that I will miss and there are many other people across campus that I’ve gotten to know who I mill miss. I consider them my friends as well as my colleagues.”
Foley explained that one of the main things that she enjoyed about SRU is how the small size of the university allowed for a much greater amount of communication between students and faculty members. She said that there will be many students that she will miss as well.
According to Foley, President Norton will be meeting with other administrators next week in order to discuss how they plan on selecting the new Vice President of Student Affairs. There will most likely be another national search for Vice President for Student Life after the search for the next Vice President for Finance and Administration has concluded.
