Inside the President’s Office
December 5, 2013
Rodolfo Arévalo is the 25th Eastern Washington University president. He started his position at EWU in 2006, previously working at many other universities throughout the country. President Arévalo gave The Easterner an opportunity to meet with him and discuss some of his background, recent accomplishments and hopes for EWU’s future.
The Easterner:
When you were growing up, what did you want to be?
President Arévalo:
I figured I’d be doing what my father was doing, which was agricultural work, when I was growing up, and probably wasn’t until high school that I figured I’d be doing something else. … My interest was in math because I was very good in mathematics. So I was looking at something in math or something related to that, and I ended up getting a degree in accounting.
During the Vietnam War … accounting firms didn’t want to hire a young male and spend money training them if they were going to get drafted because that was when the draft was in existence. So I ended up getting a job, not in accounting, but in something akin to social work and figured out I wasn’t really prepared for that because I knew business. I didn’t know counseling and stuff like that. So I went back to school and that’s how I got to the University of Michigan. Then a degree in social work and then I stayed there and got a Ph.D. And that’s how I got into higher [education] because me and another friend I met at the university started doing recruiting for the doctoral program we were in. Eventually the school created an office for recruiting minority students to the University of Michigan, and he and I became the directors of it. So that sort of led me to look more at maybe I should be doing this kind of stuff.
The Easterner:
What do you think the biggest difference is here at Eastern compared to some of the other universities you have worked at?
President Arévalo:
I think one of the uniquenesses that I liked about Eastern was its focus on students and student learning. It was demonstrated, even back then. We do it more now then we used to, … we were trying to get students to do internships and community service kinds of projects. Although, I was at a couple of universities that did a little bit of that. It seemed like Eastern did more of that than the other places that I had been at. That coupled with again the faculty being so interested in making sure that students were successful.
The Easterner:
What is your favorite part about Eastern or your favorite part about working here?
President Arévalo:
I think my favorite part really is being in the community and explaining to community leaders what our students are able to do and talking about some of the unique programs we have like forensic science, dental hygiene, our writing program that you just don’t see at other places especially in the state of Washington.
The Easterner:
What are some of the goals you are working on this year?
President Arévalo:
One of the things we have obviously been working on this year is quarters to semesters … that will come at least to resolution fairly quickly.
The other is really trying to continue to improve on the ability of making our students more successful academically. … I think the implementation of the learning commons two years ago is helpful. The redesign of our math, remedial and first year math courses is going to help. So we’re looking at other ways we can do things for the general student population that are successful with small student populations.
Our students that get into, for example, the scholars program on campus because it is a small program, we give them a lot of support. Well, my question has always been, “If we can do it for them, why can’t we do it for the larger population?” So we are trying to see how we can take the best pieces of smaller programs and offer it to a larger number of students.
The other part that’s kind of associated with trying to get students through here as quickly as possible is really implementing more e-learning opportunities for students.
The Easterner:
What does being named the 2014 Board of Directors of American Association of State Colleges and Universities mean to you?
President Arévalo:
Well, I think it means that my fellow presidents recognize me as being helpful in terms of looking at how we continue to promote higher education policy in this country because that association represents about 400 universities across the United States.
It’s one of the professional organizations that works with the federal government and the Department of Education on higher education policy. It’s an opportunity to have an impact on those kinds of issues and to have an impact on the types of students that we have here at Eastern.
One of my interests for example is to continue to promote that we need to continue to do more in terms of federal financial aid. Instead of cutting back we need to increase it and allow it to keep up with the increasing cost of higher education. The other one really has to do with how we measure student success. I know this year the federal government is interested in doing a checklist of how universities can improve what they do in terms of efficiency and in retaining and graduating students.
The Easterner:
What will your role be on the board of directors?
President Arévalo:
One … will be to look at how the organization can provide development activities for presidents, especially new presidents, so that they can become more successful. Not all presidents have a strong business background and … it’s very important that you understand where every penny goes in order to help the institution survive.
