On April 13th, Eric Norman, one of the top three candidates to become the new Vice President of Oakland University, spoke with faculty and students alike to convince them that he’s the best choice for OU.

Sporting black and gold, Norman was able to tell the crowd about his accomplishments and what he would bring to OU if he were chosen as our new VP.

“Coming from his past institutions, he seems like he would be able to take what he’s done at those institutions and apply them to Oakland,” Annie Meinberg, former Student Body President, said. “He has great initiative.”

Norman was able to tell the group of the OU community he spoke with that he has a lot of experience with students affairs, especially things involved with Greek life. His resume includes Indiana University, Purdue University Fort Wayne, Virginia Tech and the University of Delaware.

“At Virginia Tech, we moved Greek life from a system to a community,” Norman said. “When I came there we had 50 chapters, when I left we had 78.”

Norman also talked about his experience with being the Vice Chancellor and Dean of Students at Indiana University and Purdue University, or IPFW.

“Oakland is similar to my current institution, IPFW.” Norman said. “Race, religion, sexual orientation, veterans, international and disability students are all communities we pay attention to in order to make sure we capture the university as a whole.”

After presenting his case, members of the audience were allowed to ask Norman questions about what he would do as OU’s Vice President of Student Affairs. During this time he discussed housing, alumni, commuting students, and the LGBT community.

Norman addressed all of these topics with the same answer: they are all important to OU and need to be made aware of that and given opportunities to get involved on campus.

“I’m a big believer in mentorship,” Norman said.

As the bigwigs from OU filed out of the room when the presentation was over, students from Student Congress, the Student Program Board, the Oakland Post and the OU Rec Center came in to voice some of their concerns to Norman. He and the students spoke on issues such as commuting culture, student organization funding, and increasing the level of students who get involved on campus.

Next week, Franklin D. Chambers will be speaking to students and faculty on Tuesday, April 21 in Gold Rooms B and C, and Glenn McIntosh will follow on Thursday, April 23 in the Oakland Room. Both presentations will be held from 1:15 to 2:15 on their respective days.