Wheaton College now has a new vice president of enrollment, Laura Severin. Severin was appointed to the position by a search committee headed by Vice President Gene Begin and Professor Karen McCormack. During the search, the committee noted her thoughtful and strategic approach to the challenges of student recruitment and enrollment as well as her collaborative style. She has been described by President Dennis Hanno as “experienced and extremely talented.”
Severin comes to Wheaton from Yale-National University of Singapore (NUS) College, where she displayed her capability to be the vice president of enrollment. As written by President Hanno, “she joined Yale-NUS in 2013, the year it welcomed its first incoming class, as an associate director and quickly progressed to lead admissions, overseeing the enrollment division and helping to make college-wide decisions as a member of the President’s Cabinet and Senior Leadership Team.”
Severin improved the success of Yale-NUS’s outreach to prospective students and developed the operations of its admissions and financial aid departments by improving the college’s enrollment strategies and increasing its use of technology. By doing this, President Hanno notes, Severin demonstrated “the value of the liberal arts in an area of the world largely unfamiliar with this type of higher education. Her oversight enabled the institution to meet its goals for academic achievement and diversity while increasing the incoming class size by 19 percent and improving yield. Prior to working at Yale-NUS, Severin served stints at both Swarthmore College and Lehigh University, where she developed expertise in international student recruitment as well as other aspects of the enrollment process.” As a graduate of Dickinson College, Severin is uniquely qualified to help further improve Wheaton and its outreach towards potential students both domestically and internationally.
Severin will commence working at Wheaton on May 1 and will be visiting the campus throughout the current spring semester. Meanwhile, Christopher Hooker-Haring is serving as the vice president of enrollment and dean of admission and student aid.