By Ryan Allen Wight, Copy Editor
Over the summer, Western New England University’s Student Affairs staff as well as Upper Administration underwent extensive restructuring and rebranding. We have new faces in old places and old faces in new places.
Dr. Maria Toyoda is now the University’s Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost. Dr. Toyoda was most recently the Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences and Professor of Political Science at Suffolk University in Boston, and she was the Associate Dean of Global and Interdisciplinary Studies at Villanova University before that.
At Stanford, Dr. Toyoda served as Acting Executive Director at the Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies. Prior to this, she worked to ensure medical treatment & care for cross-cultural needs for overseas patients as Acting Director and International Coordinator for International Medical Services at Stanford University Medical Center.
At Suffolk, Toyoda oversaw the revamping of facilities and equipment in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) departments and launched more than fifteen new academic programs. These are just a few of many positions and accomplishments. Dr. Toyoda also studied Human Biology as an undergraduate student at Stanford before getting her M.A. and Ph.D. in Government at Georgetown University.
Our new Provost brings all of her experiences and proven competence with her as she aims to “ensure that WNE’s academic programming is the core source of value to its students,” now and moving forward. In practice, this means empowering students to “add value to a changing world,” launching multiple new academic programs, and expanding opportunities for student-faculty engagement.
A priority of any university must be to remain student-focused at all times. As a previous Dean, Dr. Toyoda arranged a “standing meeting” with student leadership so that students could visit and discuss anything. When asked what she intends for her relationship to be with the student body, Dr. Toyoda expressed enthusiasm about setting up office hours for student meetings and intends to work on this with our student government.
Dr. Toyoda is excited to have students back, saying their presence “motivates” her. She is also hyped for the WNE Women’s Soccer game on October 2 against her old University, Suffolk.
“Don’t worry,” she says, “I’ll be wearing my Golden Bear shirt.”
Professor Hamakawa is now President Johnson’s Chief of Staff. Hamakawa says his primary role in this position is “to support President Johnson in advancing his vision… for Western New England University as a ‘new traditional university.’” Such a university, he continues, should prepare “learners and earners” and equip them with the tools to “create value” and the ability to “thrive in a… hyperconnected world.”
And through extensive consideration and hard work, the vision is being made a reality. The President will roll out the University’s reintroduction to the world at an event called “We are WNE: The Future is Ours” on September 17, 2021.
In practice, a leader benefits from partnership with a delegator, someone who can sort through what requires immediate attention and what falls under the purview of other departments. Hamakawa fulfills this responsibility with the goal of “optimizing efficiency of day-to-day administrative operations.” Additionally, President Johnson has “implemented an inclusive management structure” by forming a cabinet called the President’s Council.
The Chief of Staff sits on this Council with the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost, Vice President for Advancement, Vice President for Enrollment Management and Marketing, Vice President for Student Affairs, Vice President for Finance and Administration, Chief Information Officer, Chief Human Resources Officer, President of the Faculty Senate, and Advisor to the President.
The President’s Council sits within a larger advisory and decision-making board called the Management Council, which also includes the five academic deans, the University registrar, and the Assistant Vice President for Marketing and Communications.
Thus, Prof. Hamakawa plays a significant role as the President’s “sounding board,” both on these councils and in private. Aside from this role, the Chief of Staff takes responsibility for flow of work.
“If I am doing my job well,” he states, “faculty, staff, and alumni will have a strong sense that under President Johnson’s leadership, Western New England University is on the move, and moving onward and upward.”
Professor Hamakawa expressed intense excitement about being a part of the University right now, a time “when it is poised for great and unprecedented things to come.” President Johnson has a Chief of Staff who stands confidently behind his leadership and looks energetically “to witness the transformation of WNE as it begins to realize its full potential in its second century.”
Kathleen Noone became the Director of Western New England University’s new Center for Health and Wellness on June 3 of this year. A nurse by trade, Noone oversaw all clinical operations as chief nursing officer in her previous position at Shriners Hospitals for Children in Springfield.
Before this, Noone served as Regional Director of Oncology Services at Saint Francis/Trinity Health. She studied at Molloy College to receive a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) and attended Elms College to receive her Masters in Business Administration (MBA).
Fifteen years ago, Director Noone switched her career from nursing to leadership and administration, intending to focus on what she saw as being a grave misunderstanding in the cultural thought around — and the technical practice within — healthcare. Her transition to the University was “a conscious decision” to move further in this direction.
Director Noone spoke to me about the meaning of Wellness and the issues with the typical “Disease-based, ‘as long as I’m not sick, I’m well’ type of approach.” Wellness, she iterates, is not simply an “absence of disease; it is a balanced state of mind.” The Center not only aims to care for the WNE community’s “physical needs,” but also seeks to understand its patients as “whole [people]… to think of their health and well-being in a very different way.”
Extensive experience equips Director Noone to lead the redesign of healthcare at Western New England University. Expertise in the clinical setting aside, an MBA further bolsters her quotient of excellence in administration and program development.
So, what has changed? This year, Counseling Services moved offices from the Campus Center to Health Services on the second floor of CSP (Center for Sciences & Pharmacy). Health Services and Counseling Services have combined into The Center for Health and Wellness.
Why? It facilitates holistic treatment. All patients will be co-managed and treated from both physical and mental etiological perspectives. Further, this holistic treatment can happen now all at the same time and in the same place.
Putting Counseling and Health in the same physical space is step one of the plan for The Center for Health and Wellness. Director Noone spoke about the need for physical space; if the University wants to take seriously the mental health of its student body, then counselors need rooms to work.
When I met with her, I had the opportunity to see her large, frankly beautiful office. In fact, she finds it odd: “I’m used to working out of a closet.” Director Noone is moving into a smaller office so that her current space, with its homely colors and lawn-facing windows, can be used for group therapy sessions. Amazing.
Step two of the plan for The Center of Health and Wellness includes many initiatives, a significant one being the expansion of physical space. You might have heard it said that a counselor helps to knock down walls — well, they are actually going to knock down a wall in CSP! This will allow the Center more space to accommodate students’ “psycho-social needs.”
Kathleen Noone wants us to know the message from the Center for Health and Wellness to the student body: “We are here.” As revamping continues, the Center is working to fix logistical issues like reachability and getting back to students. The University’s new healthcare revolves around proactivity and shuns the complacency and reactivity of the traditional medical model.
The Center also intends to work with Residence Life and student leaders to establish a presence in the dorms and make that presence known. As “healthcare evolves,” Director Noone continues, it must be considered from this “different perspective.” She looks at the future generation and considers their interaction with healthcare: “how do they think about health? Those formations happen now.”
Kathleen’s goal is to apply her clinical and business experience in the educational setting: “We are part of a community… [that] has the opportunity to form — and inform — a generation as to how to think about healthcare.”
Dominick Seguro is the Executive Director for the Office of Student Success. The Office of Student Success encompasses the Offices of Academic Success and University Advising, and it focuses “not just on academics but student support in general.” Student Success has not cut any of their academic support initiatives, but in addition to these acknowledges that “student distress is not always tied to in-class circumstances,” they have expanded accordingly.
Academic Success works closely with University Advising, as both are geared to help students holistically. The administrative change and rebranding facilitates this collaboration and emphasizes that “Success specific to a student’s experience in college” requires more than academic support.
Director Seguro oversees both offices and acts as a “facilitator between different departments on campus,” particularly in regards to communications concerning policies and protocol. He works extensively with Admissions and Enrollment offices on student withdrawals, refunds, and connecting students with financial aid counselors.
Seguro also works consistently with different deans, often connecting with faculty to provide student “support both inside and outside the classroom.” The Office for Student Success builds and maintains close connections with faculty, since the two have substantial overlapping concerns.
For example, if a student is not attending class or doing their work, then faculty can work Student Success to check on the student and assist them. Communications between faculty and Student Success happen over an electronic platform managed by Director Seguro.
Student Success aims “to meet students where they’re at” through proactive programming and assessment. One of Director Seguro’s personal goals for the program is not to change superficially, but to do so driven by “what is actually happening” and what the circumstances call for. Because the University Advising model is young and still developing, it was natural that changes should occur.
This year, University Advising has expanded from first years to include — and focus on — Sophomore students. This change follows from the separation of the First Year Office from Student Success. Student Success will also continue to help Juniors and Seniors, primarily by pointing them to other resources on campus and preparing them for grad school or whatever comes next.
If I must conclude anything from my interaction with these professionals, it is that Western New England University has a passionate and intelligent leadership, and the institution is showing significant velocity and promise.
