In 1974, Executive Vice President for Campus Affairs and Enrollment Services Mark Weigand stepped onto the University of Indianapolis campus for the first time as an undergraduate student. In mid-Jan. 2018, after spending more than 38 years on campus, Weigand and the university announced his decision to retire in June.
Weigand graduated from UIndy with a Bachelors of Science in business education in 1978. After teaching briefly at Greenwood High School, he returned to UIndy in 1980, working first as an admissions counselor and then working his way up to director of admissions.
In 1999, he took the position of vice president for enrollment, then became vice president for student affairs and enrollment management in 2006 and was named to his current position in 2013.
As the executive vice president for campus affairs and enrollment services, Weigand said that his primary job is to work with various faculty and staff to help increase and maintain enrollment.
He helps faculty and staff design academic programs and is involved in making decisions about financial aid and admissions. In 2008, Weigand was involved in making the decision about how to best support students after the Indiana Senate and House of Representatives cut funding for student aid by 30 percent.
He said that the faculty and staff agreed to a wage freeze in order to put more funding toward student aid. Enrollment for the 2008-2009 academic year was strong, according to Weigand.
Weigand works closely with staff in the graduate and School for Adult Learning enrollment division, the undergraduate admissions office and the financial aid office as well as the provost.
He also chairs the university’s retention committee, sits on the budget committee and has been a part of various other commissions, boards and committees during his time at the university. It is the people he has worked with over the years that he said he will miss the most.
“It’s very unusual in this day and age to have worked with people so long and to have been in a place that there were so many changes that we all worked together and embraced, that we worked as a team,” Weigand said. “And when you work with people that long, those people become sort of an extended family. We see our kids graduate from college, we go through struggles when we lose somebody close to us, and we all help each other. So, it’s really kind of an extended family. I think the people are probably what kept me here so long — the students and the people that I work with.”
One of the individuals Weigand works closely with is University President Robert Manuel. According to Manuel, Weigand was helpful during Manuel’s transition to UIndy because of his knowledge of the history of the university.
“When you become president — especially for the first time — it’s hard to find truth,” Manuel said. “Everything is coming at you. It’s all new….And I had one true guide in that, and that was Mark [Weigand]…And so the greatest gift that Mark gave to me in my presidency was the ability to kind of be a sounding board for all of the visioning stuff we were doing, both to test whether it made sense to the history at the university but also to the culture of the university.”
In addition to working with Manuel, faculty and administration, Weigand also said that he has enjoyed having the opportunity to get to know students and watch them grow. Some of those students have returned to UIndy and are a part of the team that Weigand is leaving behind, he said. His team is one of the reasons he felt comfortable leaving UIndy.
“…I’ve spent a lot of time at the university and I want to leave when I know there are people here that can carry on what’s going on,” Weigand said. “…In the place of enrollment this is a good time to have a change, since I’ve been here so long. We have great leadership that is more than capable of carrying on.”
