An engaged student, more often than not, is also a successful student, Cami Keitel said.
“One of my primary goals is to get students more engaged, on campus and in the community,” said Keitel, who started this month as the new vice president for student affairs at Allen Community College. “Allen is a great place to be. I’m just excited about building on those opportunities to make it an even better place to be.”
Keitel, who replaces the retired Cynthia Jacobson, brings a nearly 30-year career in higher education to Allen, including the past 22 years in several capacities for the Lone Star College system in Houston. There, her roles covered everything from admissions, advising, student life, new student orientation and career services to first-year experience programs.
If Lone Star College sounds familiar, it’s because ACC President Dr. Lyvier Leffler also came to Iola earlier this year from the same system, albeit from a different campus than Keitel’s.
“Her being here sort of put Iola on the radar for me,” Keitel said.
And it was a strong desire to return closer to her roots for the Carl Junction, Mo., native that further piqued her interest when the Allen position opened.
“I started doing research, and the more I looked at Iola, and the more I looked at the campus, the more perfect it felt.”
SO WHAT responsibility does a vice president for student affairs carry?
“The easy explanation is whatever happens outside the classroom, I’m in charge of it,” she chuckled
Everything from admissions to recruitment, advising, helping with financial aid, student life and athletics fall under Keitel’s purview.
“That’s probably been my life the past 30 years,” she said. “I’ve worked hard to have a broad set of experiences that really set me up for success in this role.”
She noted that the VP for student affairs office has been relocated from the college’s administration area to the ACC Student Center.
“Right across from the cafeteria,” she said, “Hopefully I’m surrounded by students all day long, every day.”
As diverse as her career has been, Keitel notes one new experience she’ll gain at Allen: overseeing an athletics program.
She noted that Lone Star College, with 92,000 students across eight campuses, had solely intramural athletics.
“Actually, athletics was one of the draws here,” she confessed. “I’m not an athlete, but I’m a sports fan. We have a fantastic sports program here.”
