The Oldest College Newspaper in Pennsylvania

The Lafayette

The Oldest College Newspaper in Pennsylvania

The Lafayette

The Oldest College Newspaper in Pennsylvania

The Lafayette

Administrative upheaval

Four administrators have recently announced their plans to depart from their positions. Pictured above from left to right, former Dean of the College Hannah Stewart-Gambino, Provost Wendy Hill, and Vice President of Development and College Relations James Dicker ‘85. Not Pictured: Mitchell Wein
Four administrators have recently announced their plans to depart from their positions. Pictured above from left to right, former Dean of the College Hannah Stewart-Gambino, Provost Wendy Hill, and Vice President of Development and College Relations James Dicker ‘85. Not Pictured: Mitchell Wein

Photos courtesy of www.lafayette.edu

Four administrators have recently announced their plans to depart from their positions. Pictured above from left to right, former Dean of the College Hannah Stewart-Gambino, Provost Wendy Hill, and Vice President of Development and College Relations James Dicker ‘85. Not Pictured: Mitchell Wein

 

Two administrators are leaving Lafayette for new Vice President positions at different colleges in Pennsylvania later this year, becoming the third and fourth administrators at the College to step down from their positions this school year.

James Dicker ‘85, current Vice President for Development and College Relations, will be leaving in April to become Vice President for Institutional Advancement at Temple University. Mitchell Wein, who was hired by former Lafayette College President Dan Weiss in 2007, is going to Haverford to serve as Vice President of Finance and Administration and Treasurer under Weiss, the same position he held at Lafayette.

Dicker joined Lafayette in 1988 as the Assistant Director of the Alumni Fund, just three years after graduating from the college. He began his career as Vice President in 2002, overseeing Development, Alumni Relations, Career Services, and, as of three years ago, Athletics.

Dicker’s departure was timed in anticipation of a fundraising campaign that is set to be announced in the coming year.

“A campaign like that, it’s good to have continuity all the way through,” President Alison Byerly said. “So if he was thinking of making a professional move, it makes sense to do that before the campaign gets started.”

According to Byerly, the campaign is in the planning stages, and Dicker’s responsibilities will be split between current staff and former Lafayette Vice President for Advancement Gary Evans ‘57, who will be working “in a consulting capacity.”

While at Lafayette, Dicker was on the men’s wrestling team, becoming co-captain his junior year. After graduating, he went on to work at Kressler, Wolff and Miller, a financial services company with an office located in Easton, before becoming employed by Lafayette.

Dicker cited his long career at Lafayette as reason for accepting a new job.

“I’ve absolutely loved my time here,” Dicker said. “[I] graduated [from Lafayette] in ‘85, came back in ‘88, been here ever since, so, literally, my whole adult life, I’ve been at Lafayette College. [This is] the right time, I think, for me professionally.”

Dicker said the biggest thing he is going to miss about Lafayette is the relationships he’s made over his career here.

“The relationships that you build in your four years [at school], and then when you come back and spend a lot of time here, are just unbelievable,” he said.

Wein came to Lafayette from UBS PaineWebber/UBS Investment Bank. Before that, he worked for 15 years at PNC Capital Markets. As Vice President, Wein had a staff of about 200, working in six different departments, with an annual budget of $31 million.

“Mitch demonstrated that he has the skills, experience and temperament to help us achieve the ambitious goals we are setting for ourselves here at Haverford,” Weiss wrote in an email to the Haverford campus community announcing the hiring of Wein. “I couldn’t be happier to have him on our team.”

It was announced last semester that Provost Wendy Hill would be leaving Lafayette to become the head of The Agnes Irwin School, an all-girls college preparatory school in Rosemont, Pa. Hannah Stewart-Gambino, former Dean of the College, also stepped down, taking a year off before returning to Lafayette to hold a joint appointment as a professor for both the International Affairs and Government & Law departments.

Byerly is beginning to look for replacements for many of these positions.

“We will have searches going in all of these cases,” Byerly said. “We’re already working on the Provost’s search, and we get professional search firms to help us…it should be quite manageable.”

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  • J

    Jeff S. Class of 1979Mar 30, 2014 at 11:33 am

    It is not unusual for transitions to occur with a new president, but why so many and all at the same time? Why wouldn’t a new president be able to ask some of the VPs to stagger their departures so as to leave the institution in a stronger position? Change is good, but so much change at one time will slow things down quite a bit. There is a lot for newcomers to learn–academic institutions have their idiosyncracies, and so if such great change is happening across the college, the cumulative effects of steep learning curves should not be underestimated.

    Why is this on Dan Weiss?

    Reply
  • S

    Same old same oldMar 28, 2014 at 12:38 pm

    This is just a continuation of the Weiss legacy. Unlike what Dan spouted to anyone would listen, he did not leave LC in good shape. If he did, people (as well as Danny himself) would want to stay. What this article does not say is how many professors are leaving. Any BoT members leaving? This paper needs to continue investigating AND reporting what is happening.

    Reply