Freshmen and transfer students will not be the only people learning more about NIU in the coming weeks. New Vice President for Student Affairs Brian Hemphill will meet with student affairs groups and talk to other members of the NIU community in the coming weeks.

The vice president for Student Affairs oversees student life-related offices and also holds a position on NIU President John Peters’ vice presidents’ cabinet.

Hemphill served as the associate vice chancellor for Student Affairs and dean of students at the University of Arkansas for three years before coming to NIU.

“The biggest challenge is getting a firm handle on the culture and understanding NIU’s mode of operation,” Hemphill said.

According to the NIU Institutional Research factbook, 25.9 percent of students were from a minority group in the 2002-03 school year, compared with only 12.3 percent at the University of Arkansas.

“NIU is significantly more diverse than the University of Arkansas,” Hemphill said.

Another challenge Hemphill will be contending with is the continuously shrinking budgets.

“Budgets have been an issue in North Carolina, Arkansas and here,” Hemphill said. “This is a growing trend, and in a time of budget constraints there are challenges which could impact success. It’s critical that we are creative in our approach to move the organizations forward.”

While Hemphill has said that there are no plans at this time to make any changes to NIU’s Student Affairs office, sweeping changes were made to the student government at the University of Arkansas last year. The government was split up into three branches after an outside task force concluded that the structure of the student government was ineffective.

The new government structure cut the number of senators in half and required that the various colleges on campus also be represented.

The search to replace the now retired Gary Gresholdt started about eight months ago.

Finding a candidate with the necessary experience and someone with energy were priorities for the search committee, said Allison Thompson, director of public affairs for the student association and a member of the search committee.

“We wanted someone who would set us up in our chairs,” Thompson said. “Not only to be a leader, but to have forward-thinking ideas and be out around campus interacting with students.”