LV Life

Dr. Maack brings new vision of ULV’s future

As director of institutional research, Dr. Steven Maack will help to predict ULV’s future based on student population growth and program expansion. / photo by Annette Gutierrez
As director of institutional research, Dr. Steven Maack will help to predict ULV’s future based on student population growth and program expansion. / photo by Annette Gutierrez

by Andrea Gardner
Staff Writer

Dr. Steven C. Maack was named the new director of institutional research this summer.

Dr. Maack began work at ULV in July, after serving in a research position with the chancellor’s office of the California State University system and individual campuses for the past six years.

Institutional research entails keeping track of the students’ characteristics and opinions, along with analyzing data, often in the form of surveys.

Dr. Maack will be acting as a technical adviser and organizer of data to provide information to the University for devising policies and programs.

One of the programs Dr. Maack is currently working on is the Strategic Planning Process, ULV’s five year look to the future. He will be providing technical support and help in a number of surveys for faculty and students regarding the new library. In conjunction with these surveys, he will also be advising Al Clark, vice president of academic affairs.

“I am excited about the vision that the top management has for this university. The attempt to create a university that is not only going to survive but is going to thrive in the 21st century,”said Maack.

Dr. Maack will also be analyzing the ACT survey, which has been conducted at ULV for the past seven years. He is also planning on working with Director of Student Life, Ruby Cordova, on a parental survey regarding orientation.

Dr. Maack has three degrees in cultural anthropology. He earned his bachelor’s at the University of Illinois at Urbana, and his masters and Ph.D. from Columbia University.

He has experience in research analysis through his work with the St. Paul Police Department on team police evaluation. He was also a census liaison for the city of St. Paul and worked at the Metropolitan counsel of the Twin Cities area as a census analyst.

Dr. Maack is the president of the Southern California Applied Anthropology Network, along with being on the University Council, the top committee for policy, budget, and planning, and the ULV cabinet, an administrative decision-making body.

Dr. Maack accepted the position as director of institutional research because he felt that it was a situation where he could be in charge of an office and develop his own ideas.

“I think the people are very friendly, nice people. I would describe it as diverse and complicated in an interesting way,” he said describing the atmosphere of ULV.

Part of Dr. Maack’s research in the future here at ULV will include looking at external factors such as population and demographic shifts. With the children of the baby boomers reaching college age, Dr. Maack predicts an increase in the numbers of college students in the upcoming years, specifically, he predicts an increase in the number of Latino and Asian students due to their growing population in the greater Los Angeles area, and because 80 percent of the freshman coming to ULV are from within 50 miles of the University. Dr. Maack wants ULV to be ready for the rising demand. As it provides opportunity for growth, he feels that the competition with other schools will be heating up.

“That’s probably why we’re doing strategic planning now. That [competition] is one of the things we’re considering.”

“Even though it [ULV] is a small university, it has become as complicated, in terms of its number of programs and in the scheduling, as the entire California State University system,” he said.

Andrea Gardner, Managing Editor
Andrea Gardner
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Annette Gutierrez
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