Effective August 1, 2010, the UNH Administration welcomed a new member to its family of dedicated faculty and staff. Dr. Margaret Jablonski was appointed vice president of student affairs. Having nearly 30 years of experience in high education, she is ready to begin to get to know the culture of the university, while also getting to know all of the leaders of the organizations and the many students that have newly arrived on campus for the start of the fall semester. Originally from Massachusetts, she is ready to return to her New England roots.
Having served as the vice chancellor for student affairs at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Dr. Jablonski is not a stranger to her current responsibilities here at the University of New Haven. At UNC-Chapel Hill, Jablonski oversaw student life for 17,500 undergraduate and 10,000 graduate students. Here at the University of New Haven she will be responsible for all aspects of student life. Many of these include providing leadership opportunities out of the classroom and improvements in student life such as housing, athletics, residential life, health services, campus recreation, career services, and disability services.
With this position now being filled, the university community can now expect some big changes to occur. Some of these plans will focus on career development and improvements for housing. Jablonski stated that she is currently developing a model of career development and is planning on creating a new career center in the psychology building, which is being renovated. This will allow her to enhance all of the internship programs, allow for more employers to come to campus, and help more students develop their career goals and resumes.
As for housing, any student on this campus can say that that is an issue that needs to be looked into. Jablonski plans to continue to work on the housing situation and come up with a plan that will help meet the future enrollment goals of admission as well as meet the expectations of the students present. The Living and Learning Communities also fall under this category, since they play a major role in freshman living. Questions that will need to be answered are: have the right LLC’s been created and what more can they do to meet the needs of the students?
The Vice President of Student Affairs is the advocate of all of the students within the administration. Dr. Jablonski is here for all of the students and she is ready to listen to any and all issues that students may have. Her office can be found on the third floor of Bartels. If anyone needs to contact her, open office hours will soon be established and posted. Also, students are welcome to send her an email at [email protected]. Having already had a warm welcome from the few faculty and students that were on campus in the summer, Dr. Jablonski deserves a true UNH welcome. Let’s all try to make her feel a part of the UNH Community as she strives to make student life better for those enrolled.
