WASHINGTON, D.C., February 14—Dr. Eileen B. Wilson-Oyelaran, president of Kalamazoo College, has been named chair of the board of directors of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU) for 2013-14. She assumed her position on Feb. 6, at the NAICU 2013 Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.
| As chair, Dr. Wilson-Oyelaran will lead the NAICU board in setting the association’s agenda on federal higher education policy, actively encourage support of NAICU priorities and initiatives, and oversee the association’s financial administration. She was elected to a three-year term to the NAICU board in 2011, and will serve as its chair for one year. Once her term as chair expires in early February 2014, she will remain on the board for a fourth year in the role of past-chair. |  |
“President Wilson-Oyelaran assumes the NAICU chair at an unprecedented time of change and challenge for American higher education,” said NAICU President David L. Warren. “The deepening role of the federal government, tightening fiscal constraints, rapidly changing student demographics, a wave of technological innovation, and globalization are converging in ways the nation has never experienced.”
“Because of her experience, wisdom, and leadership on issues of higher education affordability, access, and quality, President Wilson-Oyelaran’s peers have selected her to serve as board chair during this important time for the nation’s private nonprofit colleges and universities,” Warren said.
NAICU serves as the unified national voice of private nonprofit higher education. With more than 1,000 member institutions and associations nationwide, NAICU reflects the diversity of independent higher education in the United States. Since 1976, the association has represented private nonprofit colleges and universities on policy issues with the federal government, such as those affecting student aid, taxation, and government regulation.
NAICU members enroll nine out of every 10 students attending private nonprofit institutions. They include traditional liberal arts colleges, major research universities, church- and faith-related institutions, historically black colleges, Hispanic-serving institutions, single-sex colleges, art institutions, two-year colleges, and schools of law, medicine, engineering, business, and other professions.
NAICU spearheads several major public initiatives, including the Student Aid Alliance, a national coalition that advocates for enhanced funding of the federal student aid programs; the University and College Accountability Network (U-CAN) consumer information website; and the nonpartisan National Campus Voter Registration Project, which engages college students in the electoral process.
Wilson-Oyelaran has served as president of Kalamazoo College since 2005. She earned her B.A. in sociology from Pomona College, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in education from the Claremont Graduate University.