Theodore L. Spencer will be recommended to the University of Michigan Board of Regents at its July meeting as director of undergraduate admissions. His appointment, if approved, will be effective Aug. 1.
Spencer has served as interim director since June 1992, succeeding Richard Shaw.
“It is with a great deal of pleasure that I recommend Mr. Spencer,” said Provost Gilbert R. Whitaker Jr. “He emerged from a national search as the candidate most capable of leading the Office of Undergraduate Admissions in the years to come.
“Mr. Spencer has brought new ideas, energy and enthusiasm to the Office of Undergraduate Admissions. He is a wonderful ambassador for the University of Michigan.”
Spencer said he is “tremendously pleased to have the position and I thank President Duderstadt, Provost Whitaker and the search committee for giving me this opportunity at this great institution.
“I think the U-M is the best university in the country and I hope that in my role I will be able to help it continue as the best in the West and the best in the country.”
Spencer joined the U-M in 1989 as associate director of admissions, coming from the U.S. Air Force Academy where he served as associate director of admissions. As associate director of the U-M office, he was responsible for developing and implementing programs to recruit both new and transfer students.
In that post, he initiated marketing programs that personalize the recruiting process through periodic direct mailings and managed the minority recruiting program, which has experienced record increases.
He holds a B.S. in political science from Tennessee State University and an M.A. in sociology from Pepperdine University. At graduation from college, he was commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Air Force. He is a graduate of the Military War College and retired from the Air Force with the rank of lieutenant colonel.
Spencer is a member of a number of University committees, including the Admissions Advisory Committee, the President’s Advisory Committee on Minority Affairs and the Office of Minority Affairs Advisory Committee.
He serves as an administrative liaison with the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics and sits on the University’s Legislative Planning Committee, Community College Committee and Minority Recruiting Committee.
He has conducted surveys and written many position papers on the process of effective recruiting, including the recruitment of underrepresented minority students, top scholars, women in science and students from small communities, as well as the effectiveness of the campus visit in the enrollment process and the effectiveness and influence of utilizing currently enrolled students in the recruitment process.
