On Monday, March 17, Albion College officials announced the departure of interim president Mike Frandsen. A statement written by Don Sheets, chair of the Albion College Board of Trustees, said that Frandsen had taken a position as vice president of finance and administration for Oberlin College. Frandsen will assumes those duties on July 1.
Frandsen has served as interim president since June 2013, when now Chancellor Donna Randall stepped down as the college’s president. Frandsen has previously served as an assistant professor of management, director of the Gerstacker Institute for Business and Management and vice president of finance and administration for Albion College.
In an email interview, Fransden remarked fondly on his Albion College career. When asked what he’d seen change at Albion during his work here, Frandsen said that it wasn’t what had changed that was most noticeable to him.
“What’s more interesting are some of the things that don’t change [about Albion] — the energy and enthusiasm of the students,” Frandsen said. “The caring of the faculty and staff that leads to learning in and out of the classroom and lifelong connections. I was in Washington, DC, on Wednesday for a dinner with some alumni whose Albion experiences spanned the 1950s to the 1980s. They all talked about people who influenced them – their professors, their coaches, their teammates.”
Frandsen said that the variety of roles he has played at Albion was valuable to him personally and professionally.
“I am lucky to have viewed Albion from many perspectives,” Frandsen said. “That has served me well here, and I think will serve me well at Oberlin.”
“Mike knows that important financial decisions require support from across the college,” Tallman said. “He has the knowledge and vision to know the right path to take, the willingness to convey that vision to the academic community, and the energy to engage in the personal interactions necessary to get the support for moving in the appropriate direction. He also has the capacity to listen attentively to the views of others and the genuine humility to recognize that one person does not have all the answers.”
Photo courtesy of Albion College
This story, originally posted March 26, was updated March 28 to reflect that Dr. Frandsen was an assistant professor of management, not a professor of economics.
So while serving on an interim basis, he somehow found time to go interview elsewhere? Great priorities.