History

HESA Awards

The College Student Personnel (CSP) degree program at Bowling Green State University was initiated in 1964 under the direction of the late Frank C. Arnold, Professor of Psychology and Director of the Counseling Center. A committee consisting of faculty members from the departments of Psychology and Sociology assisted in giving this program leadership for the first five years. The typical size of the class from 1964 to 1969 was six to eight students. These first students usually worked in the residence halls in an administrative capacity.  

In the fall of 1968, the late Dr. Gerald L. Saddlemire was employed as the first department chair effective June 1, 1969. Dr. Saddlemire expanded the curriculum and arranged for a number of internships for CSP graduate students. The size of the class increased to 17 in the 1970-71 academic year. Opportunities for salaried internships for the graduate students increased both on the Bowling Green campus and at other local colleges. Dr. Saddlemire served as chair until 1985 and continued teaching and advising students until his death at the age of 70 in 1991. The annual Saddlemire Lecture, co-sponsored by the Division of Student Affairs and HESA, brings in noted speakers each year to address the campus community. His son, Dr. John Saddlemire, served as a visiting associate professor from 1997-2001. He left the CSP program in 2001 when he became the dean of students at the University of Connecticut.

Dr. Harold Marquardt joined the staff in September, 1970. He contributed significantly to the growth of the program until his untimely death in April of 1978. Dr. Audrey Rentz, completed her doctoral degree at Michigan State University and came to campus in 1974 with a joint appointment in the Division of Student Affairs and the College Student Personnel Department. In September 1978, she became a full-time faculty member. In December 1996, Dr. Rentz retired from BGSU after 24 years of service, earning emeritus status. She continued to teach on a part-time basis in 1997. She passed away in 2010.

Dr. Carney Strange completed his doctoral work at the University of Iowa and also joined the Department in 1978. He served as department chair from 1985 until 1993. Dr. Strange retired in 2013 and was named professor emeritus. Dr. Patricia King, who completed her doctoral degree at the University of Minnesota, was appointed to the faculty first as visiting assistant professor in 1982 and was tenured in 1986. She served as acting chair during the 1993-1994 academic year and was named chair in 1994. Dr. King left the faculty after 19 years to join the faculty of the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education at the University of Michigan. Dr. Leila Moore served on the faculty as a visiting associate professor during the 1985-1987 academic years.

Dr. Michael Coomes completed his doctoral work at Indiana University and joined the CSP Department in 1986; he was awarded tenure in 1993. He assumed the position of chair in 1999, a position he held until 2010. Dr. Coomes retired in 2015 and was named associate professor emeritus. Dr. Carolyn Palmer joined the department in August 1990 following her position as assistant director of housing for research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she also completed her doctoral work. Dr. Palmer was awarded tenure in 1996 and oversaw the Adult Learner Focus program before her retirement in 2011.

Dr. Robert DeBard, who completed his doctorate at Indiana University, began teaching courses for the department in 1990 while serving as dean of Firelands College. Dr. DeBard became a full-time faculty member in the department in 1996 and retired in 2011 with emeritus status.

Dr. Vivian Rogers, as a visiting professor during the 1984-1985 academic year, provided leadership for developing a new emphasis on the adult learner. In 1986, Dr. Barbara Bauer came from Teachers College at Columbia University and built upon Dr. Roger’s work. Dr. Fiona MacKinnon, who completed her doctoral work at Ohio State University, was appointed to the faculty as an assistant professor in the fall of 1988. She was awarded tenure in 1993. She retired after serving as associate dean in the College of Education and Human Development.

In January of 1991, the name of the Department was changed from College Student Personnel to Higher Education and Student Affairs (HESA) to reflect the incorporation of the Higher Education Administration doctoral program. In the fall of 1991, Dr. Donald D. Gehring joined the department faculty as professor and director of the Higher Education Administration Ph.D. Program. The Department of Higher Education and Student Affairs then housed two distinct programs: a two year master’s degree program in College Student Personnel and a 63-hour post-master’s Ph.D. program in Higher Education Administration. Dr. Gehring retired as professor emeritus in December 2000. He died in 2020. .

In 1995, a departmental convocation was initiated to welcome new students and affirm the CSP and HIED programs' academic values. This event has been held annually since that time.

From the fall of 1996 through the summer of 1997, Dr. Mary Howard-Hamilton took a leave from the University of Florida to join the CSP faculty as a visiting associate professor.

In the fall of 1998, Dr. Fred A. Bonner II joined the CSP faculty as an assistant professor. Dr. Bonner completed his doctoral work at the University of Arkansas, and had previously taught at Centenary College, in Shreveport, Louisiana. Dr. Bonner left the faculty in August 2000 to join the faculty of the University of Texas at San Antonio.

In 1998, the College of Education and Human Development restructured into five schools. The College Student Personnel and Higher Education Administration programs were combined with the Educational Foundations and Inquiry, Educational Administration and Supervision, and Leadership Studies programs to form the School of Leadership and Policy Studies. Dr. Patricia King served as the School's first director; Drs. Gehring and Coomes subsequently served as school director.

Fall 2001 saw the largest influx of new faculty thus far in the program's history. Dr. Michael Dannells (Ph.D., University of Iowa) joined the faculty after teaching for 15 years at Kansas State University. Dr. Dannells left the faculty in August 2008 to relocate to Oregon. 

Dr. Ellen Broido, who earned her doctorate at Pennsylvania State University, joined the faculty in 2001 after teaching at Portland State University. In May, 2017, Dr. Broido was promoted to professor. 

Dr. Maureen Wilson earned her Ph.D. at Ohio State University and was an assistant professor at Mississippi State University for three years before also joining the faculty at BGSU in 2001. She assumed the department chair position in 2010. In May 2016, Dr. Wilson was promoted to professor. In 2019, she moved into an associate dean role in the College of Education and Human Development at BGSU.

Dr. D-L Stewart joined the HESA program in the fall of 2005. He completed his doctoral work in 2001 at The Ohio State University and served as an assistant professor of College Student Personnel and Higher Education at Ohio University from 2002-2005. In 2016, he was promoted to professor. Dr. Stewart left the department in 2017 to assume the position of coordinator of the SAHE program at Colorado State University.

In the Fall of 2006, Higher Education and Student Affairs separated from EFLP and became a department within the College of Education and Human Development.
Dr. Christina Lunceford joined the HESA faculty in 2011. She previously worked as the assistant director in the Center of Research on Educational Access and Leadership at California State University, Fullerton after completing her doctorate at Michigan State University. Dr. Lunceford was tenured and promoted to associate professor in 2018. In 2019, she was appointed interim department chair for HESA. In fall of 2020, Dr. Lunceford moved back to California, to become an associate professor and director of the master’s program in college counseling and student development in the Department of Higher Education at Azusa Pacific University.

Dr. Nicholas Bowman also joined the HESA faculty in 2011. Dr. Bowman completed his doctorate at the University of Michigan and worked for the Center for Social Concerns at the University of Notre Dame before coming to BGSU. Dr. Bowman left the program in May 2015 to join the faculty at the University of Iowa as associate professor and director of the Center for Research on Undergraduate Education.

Dr. Kenneth Borland earned his Ed.D. at Pennsylvania State University.  He served as senior vice president for academic affairs and provost at BGSU prior to joining HESA as a full-time faculty member in August 2011. 

Dr. Hyun Kyoung Ro joined the HESA faculty in 2015. Dr. Ro previously worked as a research designer and analyst for the Institutional Research and Analysis Department at Carnegie Mellon University. Dr. Ro earned her Ph.D. in Higher Education with a minor in Educational Psychology, Applied Measurement from Pennsylvania State University in 2011. Dr. Ro was tenured and promoted to associate professor in 2019. In 2020, Dr. Ro accepted a new position as an associate professor in the Department of Counseling and Higher Education at the University of North Texas.

Dr. Conor McLaughlin, who earned his Ph.D. at the University of San Diego in Leadership Studies, joined the HESA faculty in 2018 as a senior lecturer.

Beginning in 2016, Dr. Pat Pauken, director of EFLP; Dr. Maureen Wilson, HESA chair; and Dr. Jacob Clemens, associate dean of students (and HIED graduate) collaborated to develop a new undergraduate leadership minor. 

In fall 2020, Dr. Pat Pauken, professor and school director for the School of Educational Foundations, Leadership, and Policy was appointed interim chair of HESA. As an affiliate of the HIED program, he has taught the higher education law class nearly every year.

In Fall, 2022, Dr. Amy French who earned her Ph.D. at Indianna State University in Higher Education/Higher Education Administration and began serving as Program Coordinator and Associate Teaching Professor

The current faculty serve about 35 full-time students in the CSP program and 30 full and part-time students in the HIED program.

To learn more about their current professional activities of CSP and HIED faculty, please visit the HESA Faculty page.