Jean Kim, vice chancellor for student affairs at CU-Boulder, announced her resignation today, citing her desire to spend more time with her family and expand her successful part-time consulting practice.
Kim will leave her post on May 15th, 1999, to focus on her consulting career, which involves work with Fortune 500 companies primarily in the areas of leadership development, diverse workforce enhancement and strategic organizational development.
Vice Chancellor Kim came to the university after a national search in 1995 with 21 years experience in student affairs administration at the University of Hartford, Stanford University and the University of Massachusetts.
Hired by then-Chancellor Roderic Park, Kim was charged with responsibility for strengthening the management of the student affairs division, increasing its effectiveness and visibility on campus and establishing a shared vision for student affairs.
Kim said she will work closely with Byyny and Ron Stump, associate vice chancellor for student affairs and dean of students, to ensure a smooth transition.
"Under Jean's leadership the student affairs division evolved into a high performing, multicultural organization, centered on the principle that students are its highest priority," Bynny said. "I will work closely with the Student Affairs division and the students to provide interim and long-term leadership that continues this successful effort."
Working with her directors, Vice Chancellor Kim succeeded in developing a strategic plan with the primary goal of creating a healthy living-learning community that is more student-centered than administratively driven.
Kim created the first-ever Student Affairs Advisory Board (SAAB), comprised of business and civic leaders, and established more than a dozen regional Parents Association chapters that provide support to out-of-state parents, assist with new student recruitment and enhance fund development.
"Jean Kim has been an innovative leader and has been successful in accomplishing several new initiatives that have impacted the campus as a whole," Kemp Will, chair of SAAB, said today. "We are very sorry to see her leave."
Kim created and led the first campuswide Enrollment Management Team, focused on enhancing recruitment and retention of undergraduates. She led the effort that won an $860,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to reduce high-risk drinking on campus.
With other vice chancellors she initiated a re-engineering project called "Designing Student Services for the 21st Century: The Student Odyssey." The project is expected to have significant impact on how CU-Boulder delivers services to students.
Kim chaired the institutional self-study that led to successful NCAA certification of CU's Division I athletic program.
She also developed and taught two new courses in the ethnic studies department, "The Korean American Experience" and "Seminar on Racial Identity Development." She is working on a book about the experiences of Asian-American professionals in the United States.
"I leave the campus with a strong sense of accomplishment and a great admiration for the quality of the professionals in the student affairs division," Kim said.
"At the same time, I'm looking forward to new directions and challenges, and I relish more time with my family, particularly my two daughters, who are entering their teens."
Kim and her family live in Boulder.