Dr. Alberto Ruiz has a number of ideas in the pipeline for how to increase student retention, recruitment and success if he is chosen as the next Emporia State University provost and vice president for academic affairs.
Ruiz was the last finalist for the position to make a visit to campus Thursday. Prior to his community forum presentation, Ruiz sat down with KVOE and stated Emporia State has had to make “difficult financial” decisions in recent weeks.
He says while those decisions were met with criticism from many, so long as they were made with students at the forefront, they will undoubtedly breed success for ESU in the near future. With that in mind, Ruiz says in addition to its reinvestment plans, the university should also be looking into ways it can increase “external funding.”
Ruiz says a major focus for him, if selected, will be to increase student recruitment from Emporia and surrounding communities.
Earlier this week, KVOE asked fellow finalist and current interim provost Brent Thomas if selecting an external candidate may derail the momentum ESU has built over the past few months specifically with its reinvestment for the future initiative. Thomas stated he felt it inevitably would, however, when asked the same question, Ruiz, however, felt differently.
Ruiz is currently an associate athletic director for student-athlete excellence and a professor of kinesiology at the University of Louisiana-Monroe. He has worked at Louisiana-Monroe since 2019 after serving in several roles at Texas A&M-Kingsville from 2001-2019. Ruiz obtained his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Texas A&M-Kingsville and his education doctorate from the University of Houston.
Ruiz follows Thomas, Sean Lane of Alabama-Huntsville and Greg Haddock of Northwest Missouri State who all interviewed for the position over the past two weeks. A timeline for when the university will announce its selection for the position is currently pending.
