Jonathan Wexler rolls out of bed every morning and is literally a few steps away from his new job at Fairleigh Dickinson University.

As of Jan. 2, Wexler began as the associate vice president for enrollment management of the entire university, and is currently residing in one of the buildings on the Metropolitan Campus.
While getting to work may be a breeze, Wexler’s new job oversees many of the important aspects of enrollment. Wexler is in charge of undergraduate and graduate admissions, transfer and adult enrollment, and office of financial aid on both the Metropolitan Campus and the College at Florham, he said.

The most important thing is “recruiting the right students for the university as a whole and making sure that we are identifying students who are going to be successful here and students we want to have on campus,” Wexler said. “As well as bringing in a class that everybody can be happy and proud of.”

Wexler has taken the place of Bernetta Millonde, who has decided to take on the position of executive director at UrbanPromise, “a Christian-based, outreach and support program for children and teens in Camden, N.J.,” according to FDU’s Web site.

Millonde joined the FDU team in 2002 and by 2005 was named vice president for enrollment management, according to the FDU Web site. With her help, FDU was able to expand applications to more diverse, academically gifted prospective students, enhance campus visitation programs, and increased the first-time, full-time enrollments at the Metropolitan Campus.

Wexler plans to continue the momentum Millonde left behind, and to also move on to bigger and better things for FDU’s enrollment management.

“I hope to continue to get more exposure for the university and continue to go in an upward trend that has been happening with enrollment over the last five years here,” Wexler said. “My hope is that five years after doing this job, FDU will have even more recognition than it does now.”

As for current students, Wexler hopes to create more of an outreach program in which they could volunteer their time to be a tour guide for prospective students. Wexler also said that he would love to have students engage in more overnight stays where a current student acts as a host and a tour guide for two to three days.

According to Wexler, students can hope “to see more outreach from admissions for their involvement, and having more events on campus for prospective students where the current students could help showcase different events that are going on.”

One of the enrollment programs FDU has offered for about a year now is an outreach program for prospective students called the shadow program where prospective students can shadow a current student to get the feel for the university. Prospective students can accompany current students to classes, food breaks and other activities.

Wexler was attracted to FDU because of the unique opportunity it had to offer, and the opportunity to work under President J. Michael Adams, with whom he had also worked at Drexel University. Wexler’s previous jobs consisted of being the vice president for enrollment at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Wash., where he was also the liaison to the athletics department, the dean of undergraduate admissions at Polytechnic University in Brooklyn, N.Y., and director of graduate recruitment at Drexel University.

Wexler earned a dual bachelor’s degree in political science and communication from Goucher College in Baltimore, Md., and a master’s degree in higher education administration from the University of South Carolina, Columbia. It wasn’t until his graduate studies that he realized his passion for working with college students and universities.

KAYLA HASTRUP
News Editor

This semester, FDU has launched a master’s degree program in homeland security, the first of its kind in New Jersey.

The Master of Science in Homeland Security (MSHS) program, directed by the School of Administrative Science based at FDU’s Metropolitan campus, is one of a few offered in the country, according to the university’s Web site. Classes are designed to be conducted off-campus and online.
Twelve students have enrolled in the program, whose online-based classes already have begun and seem to be successful, according to FDU’s public relations office in Teaneck. Those students will get the credentials they need to further their careers within the field of homeland security.

Some of the goals of the MSHS program are to provide graduate-level studies for the non-traditional student involved in homeland security, support success of the students in the educational process, and contribute to the preparation of world citizens through global education, according to the FDU Web site.

FDU’s terrorism, emergency management and computer security forensics certificate programs, which began in 2004, have produced more than 300 graduates, according to the FDU Web site.

The students in FDU’s certificate courses were asking for a higher level degree with which to distinguish themselves, Paulette Laubsch, director of the new program, said in a Nov. 12 Daily Record article. “For many, it’s that they want a credential that says they know what they know.”
Students in the MSHS program must complete 36 credits, including four mandatory courses, to earn their degrees. The program is divided into three areas of specialization: terrorism and security studies, emergency management and leadership.

BY KAYLA HASTRUP
News Editor