Special Assistant to the President for Student Success

Joseph Glover, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs

President Kent Fuchs announced today the appointment of Dr. Zina Evans as Special Assistant to the President for Student Success. During this appointment, Dr. Evans will continue fulfilling her responsibilities as Vice President for Enrollment Management and Associate Provost.

“This appointment is a natural outgrowth of Dr. Evans’ Enrollment Management responsibilities and experience,” said President Fuchs.”In her new role, she will focus on academic incentives and any campus impediments to student success. In consultation with the Provost and the Deans, Dr. Evans will concentrate on a few projects at a time that need sustained attention. I am pleased that Dr. Evans has agreed to take on this important work that will bring substantial benefits to our undergraduate community and to the university.”

Provost Joe Glover offered an example of a project that Dr. Evans may tackle. “While UF enjoys very good 4- and 6-year graduation rates, there is room for substantial improvement that would benefit students in terms of lower costs and shorter time to degree. Dr. Evans will explore student habits, organizational and curricular impediments, and financial problems that might lengthen unnecessarily their time to graduation. Her work will emphasize establishing practical interventions to help students.” Other potential projects include leveraging effective practices being done at the college level to establish best practices for student success across the campus; facilitate the implementation of appropriate recommendations from the Retention Taskforce and leverage the great work being done in individual programs to support first generation and low income students to establish a cohesive campus wide support network for these students.

Dr. Evans came to UF in 2006 and has held such positions as assistant provost and director of admissions and associate provost for enrollment management. She was selected for the inaugural position of Vice President for Enrollment Management in 2011. As UF’s chief enrollment officer she oversees the Offices of Admissions, Student Financial Affairs, the University Registrar and the Welcome Center.