high percentage of the non-traditional students that make up an increasing percentage of student bodies across the country. Martin cites recent studies that have documented about 325,000 young people in southeast Michigan between the ages of 25 and 34 who have some college classwork but are working without a degree. About one-third of that number say they would like to finish their college education. “And my answer is come to Eastern and you will get it done,” she says. “Those students that may have given up for some reason and then they come back and get their degree, their lives and their family’s lives are forever transformed. They’re going to be committed to education and the next generation is probably going to be that (traditional) 18-year-old freshman. ... And you just see that again and again and again.” As Martin was preparing for the end of her presidency in
July, she talked about the importance of EMU continuing to work on securing private donations to supplement tuition and state revenue. “Fundraising is the one thing I have not fixed yet,” she
says. “Our greatest asset is our alumni, and we have 166 years of them and they love the place. And they follow it. I have all kinds of alumni contact me if I’m in the paper, and they read the president’s report at each board meeting. They love the place, but we haven’t built a culture of giving. There’s a way to do this and we’re working on that, but it takes years to build it up.” Martin has attended countless alumni get-togethers, big
and small, all across the country. She says she’s as comfortable now driving her rental car on the infamously congested Los Angeles freeways as she is at a football tailgate at Rynearson Stadium. The University must continue to build bonds with all its alumni, she says, from local teachers to Hollywood celebrities like Sally Young (BS72), an Emmy-winning producer for “Modern Family,” and actor Dann Florek (BS75) of “Law and Order” fame. EMU is engaging alumni with group events such as gatherings at the Detroit Institute of Arts or Detroit Tigers baseball games. “We’re trying to do things to widen the net and increase that alumni participation rate, to start to give the first gift. We have a long way to go but we have people who love us.” Martin will use her year of administrative leave for
academic research and writing, and to prepare to teach accounting and/or taxes in the EMU College of Business in 2016. As for her legacy, “I hope that people see that I really
believed in the importance of what Eastern does,” she says. “It is a community that extends beyond Ypsilanti, to generations of alumni. That we need to be very proud of Eastern, to wear the Block E and to support what Eastern does because it transforms individuals and families that also stay in Michigan for the most part and serve this great state of Michigan. “It isn’t just Sue Martin working. Hundreds of people doing
their job right turned Eastern around. And lots of love and support from lots of people who care about the place.” 3
Eastern | SUMMER 2015 11
Meet Interim President Kim Schatzel Kim Schatzel,
provost and executive vice president of academic and student affairs, will serve as interim president while Eastern conducts a national search for the successor to President Susan Martin. Schatzel began her new role on July 8, 2015.
Schatzel’s background includes extensive academic
leadership and corporate business experience. Before coming to EMU, she served as dean of the College of Business at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, having joined U-M Dearborn in 2000 as an assistant professor of marketing. Her corporate experience includes more than 20 years of new venture and start-up work. Schatzel received a doctorate in business
administration from Michigan State University - Eli Broad Graduate School of Management in 1999. Her research and teaching interests include innovation, new product success, and marketing communications. “Provost Schatzel is the right person to continue to
build on our successes,” says Mike Morris, chair of the EMU Board of Regents. “She has distinguished herself as an outstanding leader since joining Eastern in January 2012, and we are pleased she has agreed to accept this new role as interim president.” Meanwhile, work has begun to select Eastern’s next
president. A 10-member Presidential Search Advisory Committee, with Regent Michelle Crumm serving as chair, was formed in June, and the Board of Regents also announced the hiring of Parker Executive Search, based in Atlanta, Ga. Visit
emich.edu/presidential-search for more
information related to the search. 3
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