The search for an associate vice president for enrollment management and student success continued Wednesday with the second of four open forums scheduled.

The position is a newly introduced role at the university, and public forums have been scheduled so the four final candidates can display to the public their plans and aspirations regarding the job.

The second candidate of the four giving a public presentation, Mary Aguayo, is the enrollment and policy strategist in the University of Wyoming student affairs office. Aguayo has had 12 years of admissions and enrollment experience with the University of Wyoming, a much smaller institution with a student base of about 13,000.

“I’ve had extensive opportunity to intervene when students are in crisis and to serve that next role when [the vice president for student affairs] is unavailable,” Aguayo said.

These experiences, she believes, will allow her to better serve students on a personal basis, even if her primary job is more of an administrative role.

One of the ways Aguayo wants to improve the university’s number of satisfied students is by leaving space for more student feedback.

“If we’re not continually engaged in a feedback loop [with students] … we’re not going to be able to be as action-oriented as we could be,” Aguayo said. 

Aguayo believes that even though the university is large, the high number of admissions members will allow new student to feel at home and comfortable both in their university finances and education.

In addition to introducing new students to a positive environment, Aguayo wants more in place to deal specifically with current and senior students.

Aguayo mentioned that at her current university, half of the students enrolled in a small number of high-challenge college courses do not complete or pass them, even though the classes are chosen for them after completing placement tests.

In order to better understand why students begin to fail and drop out — not considering existential issues such as family problems and more — Aguayo had many questions to ask about Iowa State’s current dropout prevention.

The questions included, “What are the flags that we can ‘pull on’ so we can target interventions to [struggling students]?” and “What are the roadblocks that students encounter?”

Aguayo believes the dropout rate is influenced by many circumstances including academic abilities, financial capabilities, sense of belonging to the university and overall student wellness.

“When we think about students we’ve lost through attrition, their finances weren’t going right, but it’s because they failed a class and lost their scholarship […] or they can no longer qualify for federal aid or they’ve had some variety of issues that’s kept them from being as successful as possible.”

These ideas are what Martino Harmon, senior vice president for student affairs, believes will make the final hiring decision so hard.

“Each finalist has something different that they bring to the table: A different skill set, a different talent,” Harmon said. “But all of them are strong in their own ways.”

Aguayo was chosen for the forum not only because of her previous admissions experience, but also because of her education; however, her previous experience will play a large part in the hiring decision.

She received her bachelor’s in history degree and master’s of public administration degree from the University of Wyoming in 2004 and 2009, respectively.

Since completing her undergraduate education in 2004, Aguayo has been working in admissions, serving as a recruiter, assistant director of admissions and eventually enrollment and policy strategist.

Because of her higher education and experience, Aguayo believes she is ready to take on a more challenging position at Iowa State.

“We know, when we make an admissions decision … we are making a commitment and entering into contact with student[s],” she said. “We are doing everything we can to help [the student] be as successful as possible.”

Open forums for the position will continue Thursday with candidate Laura Doering from 11 a.m. to noon at 2350 Beardshear Hall. All candidate résumés and evaluation forms are available on the student affairs website.