University of Michigan. Vice President for Student Affairs.

The position of vice-president for student services traces its institutional ancestry back through the vice-president for student affairs, to the director of the Office of Student Affairs, finally to the Office of the Dean of Students. Through all of these metamorphoses the office's primary responsibility was the administration of programs related to the life of the student outside of the classroom. This encompasses a broad spectrum of programs dealing with counseling, financial aid, student housing, student activities and organizations, the health service, student discipline, and fraternities. The office reflects the changing interests and composition of the student body and the increasing complexity of the University's administrative bureaucracy.

Joseph A. Bursley, the first dean of students, took office February 1, 1921, to fulfill the Regents' dictate to act "as friend, counselor and guide to the student body and to have the general oversight of its welfare and of its general activities." Given this open-ended directive, Bursley soon found need to add an assistant dean and support staff to meet his mission tending to the housing, financial, social, and moral needs of students. By the time Bursley retired in 1945, the pattern of assuming increasing responsibilities with a larger staff and more complex bureaucracy was well established.

The burgeoning bureaucracy, retirement of Bursley, and the University's growing enrollment combined to facilitate the creation of the Office of Student Affairs in September 1945. This was the first of a series of periodic efforts to define more clearly the duties of the various offices concerned with different aspects of students' lives outside the classroom. Erich A. Walter served as director of the Office of Student Affairs from 1945 until June 1954. Upon Walter's retirement, James A. Lewis was appointed vice-president for student affairs. This new title reflected the hierarchical nature of both the office and the university as a whole. Lewis stepped down in December 1964, after another reorganization of the office.

During the latter half of the 1960s and early 1970s the University of Michigan campus was affected by student unrest, focused on the war in Vietnam as well as campus and national issues. Sit-ins, teach-ins, and more violent forms of student protest demanded the attention of the vice-presidents of student affairs and the University administration in general. Campus unrest had an impact on the Office of the Vice-President of Student Affairs and precipitated yet another reorganization of the office, this time to make it more responsive to student input. Richard L. Cutler served from December 1964 until the completion of the office reorganization in July 1968. Barbara W. Newell became acting vice-president on August 1, 1968 and served until September 1970. Robert Knauss succeeded her as the vice-president of the renamed Office for Student Services and held the post until February 1972. The changing of the guard, ongoing reorganization efforts, and the shift in focus to service stand as institutional testimony of the University's response to the chaotic times.

The appointment of Henry Johnson as vice-president for student services in April 1972 brought a needed stability to the post and a measure of order to the situation. Under Johnson, structural changes were introduced to address the needs of some disaffected groups, who thought the University unresponsive to their needs. The offices of Minority Student Services and Disabled Student Services provided an official framework within which to advance interests. As time passed, the student body became less restive, and the vice-president turned his attention to more traditional aspects of non-academic student affairs. In January 1990 Henry Johnson was reassigned to the position of Vice President for Community Affair. Mary Ann Swain acted as interim vice president for student services from 1990 to 1992.

In 1992, Maureen Hartford began her tenure as the vice president for student affairs. Hartford was previously the vice provost for student affairs at Washington State University and quickly rose to the task by focusing on issues such as the Student Code of Conduct, alcohol abuse, living/learning programs and students rights and responsibilities. In April 1999, Hartford left her position to assume the presidency of Meredith College in North Carolina. E. Royster Harper, who had served as the senior associate vice president for student affairs and dean of students then assumed the role of the interim vice president for student affairs. In November 2000, Harper was appointed vice president of student affairs.

From the guide to the Vice President for Student Affairs (University of Michigan) records, 1908-1995, (Bentley Historical Library University of Michigan)