A new year sees new changes in administration, as two positions have been filled by new hires this fall.
One of these employees is Meredith Dixon, who now serves as the Assistant Director of Residential Life. Dixon, a Residential Life Coordinator (RLC) at OWU for the past three years, was promoted to the position this summer after the departure of Drew Peterson.
Though she is still adapting to the new responsibilities, Dixon expressed excitement for a year full of new challenges.
“So far we have revamped our August training, but on a more broad scale, I want to see ResLife get more updated and easily available,” she said. “And in the long term I’m really looking forward to getting involved with the student master housing plan and helping that plan gain momentum.”
Her promotion to the position is not unusual, as the past three previous hires were once RLC’s as well. According to Dixon, this is ideal as her responsibilities now include supervising the RLC staff and having prior experience in the position is very valuable.
Unlike Dixon, the new Vice President for enrollment was hired from outside of Ohio Wesleyan University. After 11 years as the VP for enrollment management at Baldwin Wallace University, Susan Dileno has moved to OWU.
Coming to OWU
Dileno was found last year by a search committee and ultimately appointed to the position by President Rock Jones.
For Dileno, her decision to come to OWU was driven by two key factors.
“First, I had been at Baldwin Wallace for 11 years, which in this profession is close to a lifetime,” she said. “You tend to give it your all, and then after a while you wonder what value you add to the institution. It was the time in my career where I desired a new challenge. I loved my time at BW and the community there was great, but professionally I didn’t want to be on coast.”
“Also, there were a lot of similarities when I visited here at OWU: everyone is passionate, involved and I felt the sense of a great community. In particular the community and the peers I am now working with really stood out to me,” Dileno said.
So what exactly does the VP for enrollment position entail?
“I oversee the job functions of admission and financial aid,” Dileno.
“It has become increasingly difficult to meet all of an instititutions goals and requirements, and so it is my responsibility to help the university trade off and find the right balance between all of those desires. Through sophisticated uses of leveraging, marketing, and researching, my job is strategic in nature.
“By employing good decision making through data and research, I strive to see the entire university and how we can better help connect different areas of OWU.
“Then we look to use these connections in order to recruit more students here and ultimately reach our goals.”
Dileno expressed excitement for the new challenges, and has the approval of a diverse search committee behind her. Professor of physics and astronomy, Barbara Andereck, served as chair of the search committee, and also indicated her approval.
“I think that OWU is very good about finding good matches, involving a lot of people in the process and getting feedback,” Andereck said.
“I think that is a real strength of OWU in general and it showed in this hiring.”