Iowa State and President Steven Leath have had a challenging school year. The university is tasked with replacing numerous higher ranking administrators within the university, including the president’s two senior vice presidents, who announced their retirements.

While it must be a difficult task to find new employees for positions such as the dean of students, director of the health center, the vice president for diversity and inclusion and many more in the last year, the university is also presented with a unique opportunity — a fresh start. Leath took full advantage of this opportunity when he announced his restructuring of the Office of Business and Finance last week.

In his letter to the ISU community, Leath explained that in Warren Madden’s 32 years as senior vice president for business and finance, the university and the job have changed dramatically. Because of Iowa State’s unprecedented growth, enrollment growing almost 50 percent and the budget increasing more than 400 percent, Leath said it would be difficult to find someone else who can handle such a large, complex role like Madden’s.

Leath said the office will now be split into two: the Division of Finance and the Division of University Services.

The finance division, now headed by Chief of Staff Miles Lackey, will include both the Finance office (Finance, the Treasurer’s Office and Financial Planning and Budgets) as well as the Chief of Staff office (University Relations, the Ombuds Office and Internal Audit).

The second branch, the university services office, will include Facilities Planning and Management, Business Services, Environmental Health and Safety, Public Safety, Reiman Gardens, University Museums and the WOI Radio Group. The senior vice president for university services has yet to be hired.

This step to divide the Office of Business and Finance seems to be the next logical step. Iowa State is a large university, so a change in this office is a sign of growth. Additionally, it would be difficult to replace someone with 32 years of experience and who had managed the position through the university’s growth, so there is no guarantee a new senior vice president in this role would be capable or do as quality of job.

It also seems another top administrator may be a positive for students. Another person to consider students’ concerns as well as introduce new, creative ideas at the highest level should benefit the ISU community. With fewer responsibilities, those in these new roles will be able to pay closer attention to the departments under them.