First-year center welcomes two assistant directors

The Center for the First-Year Experience (CFYE), within the Division of Student Life, has announced two new assistant directors within the office.

Chris Verhaeghe has been named assistant director of orientation initiatives, providing leadership, vision, and strategy of orientation initiatives for Student Orientation, Advising, and Registration (SOAR) and Wisconsin Welcome. Tracy Mores has been named assistant director of transfer initiatives, a position that oversees the Transfer Transition Program and leads the vision for CFYE’s transfer initiatives.

Verhaeghe has worked in orientation and advising within CFYE for the last five years. His partnerships with advising units and schools and colleges have helped Verhaeghe effectively plan and implement the SOAR advising program the past several years. He was a key member of the 2012 SOAR redesign team and is part of several campus-wide initiatives to improve technology and online registration systems.

“I see us focusing on how to connect students to the high impact academic opportunities, strengthening and building on our campaign model for the social transition to campus, and defining learning outcomes and a ‘curriculum’ for Wisconsin Welcome featured events,” Verhaeghe says.

Verhaeghe started working in his new capacity on June 3.

Mores has also spent the last five years on campus, working with UW–Madison’s population of prospective and admitted transfer students within the Office of Admissions and Recruitment.

“Transfer students represent such a diverse population with so many different experiences,” explains Mores. “I love hearing about their stories and backgrounds and using that information to help match them up with campus resources so they can build a support network that works for each of them, in their unique situations.”

Mores will be starting her new position in August.

“I’m really excited to welcome Chris and Tracy to their new positions and I’m confident in the strengths they will bring to our team,” Director Carren Martin says. “They are both well-suited to serve as advocates and leaders for orientation and transfer initiatives campus-wide.”