Westfield State University - Administration and Organization

Administration and Organization

President Evan Dobelle is the day-to-day chief executive of the university, appointed by and responsible to WSU’s Board of Trustees, a group of 11 community and regional leaders, currently chaired by Kevin R. Queenin, Class of 1970, and President of Specialty Bolt & Screw Inc. He is assisted by a Cabinet, composed of the Executive Assistant to the President, the Dean of Diversity and Affirmative Action, and five Vice Presidents, who oversee Academic Affairs, Student Affairs, Advancement and University Relations, Administration and Finance, and Enrollment Management.

The longest standing forum on campus, the Student Government Association (SGA) consists of a 75 member legislature elected by the student body and an 8-member executive council, which represent each class and residence hall, commuters, WSU’s multicultural community and alumni and work in the interest of academic and social concerns.

A faculty of 222 tenured and tenure-track faculty members in 24 departments serves 4678 undergraduates. Eighty-five percent of the faculty hold terminal degrees in their fields and the student-faculty ratio in the day division is 18 to1. Fifteen percent of the faculty are persons of color.

Current statistics provide an interesting view of the student body. According to the registrar, of the 4678 undergraduate students, 51% are women, 49% are men and 2866 students live in 10 residence halls.

Financial Aid Office statistics for 2009-2010 note that 80% of undergraduates received some type of financial assistance including federal grants and state and institutional aid. Sixty-eight percent received a student loan; 148 scholarships totaling $572,412 were awarded and 342 students earned $458,260 through Federal Work Study. Seventy-seven percent of 2008 graduates secured employment within three months of graduation.

The WSU Office of Institutional Research reports that of the 1139 first year students who entered day or evening divisions in the fall of 2010, the composite verbal and math SAT score was 1020. Their average high school G.P.A was 3.0. Twenty-five percent of the 2010 freshman class was in the top 25% of their high school class (58% reporting) with 72% in the upper half of their high school class. Seventy-nine percent of first year students from the class of 2009 returned for the fall semester of 2010.

The university’s Urban Education Program, which functions as the school’s primary recruiter of high school students from diverse educational, linguistic, ethnic and cultural backgrounds, reports that 93% of first-year students served are from Massachusetts, while 37% of them are the first in their family to attend an institution of higher learning and 91% received financial assistance.

As of fall 2010, 131 faculty members serve 126 undergraduate and 139 graduate students in the Division of Graduate and Continuing Education.

Westfield State employee fall 2010 rosters listed 607 employees, representing 221 faculty members, 197 members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), 145 administrators and 40 non-unit professionals, 15% of whom are persons of color.