Wilson Zehr PhD, MBA

I’ve demonstrated my Contribution to Institution in many ways. I have served on more than 10 committees, served on one Trek Leadership Team (TLT), and served as the Team Leader for a second TLT team. I also helped craft the values for the university, the strategic plan, and our key performance indicators.

Several outcomes of this work include the creation of a detailed profile for our different student audiences, an outline of our recruiting funnel, and a description of our marketing techniques. I’m also been asked to build a student enrollment forecasting model for Institutional Research.

I established the Entrepreneurs Club (eClub) and serve as Faculty Adviser, launched an inspirational speaker series of Pub Talks, and I’m a frequent contributor to the College of Business Coffee Hour. These items make attending the university a richer experience and a fun place to be. Over time these activities will inspire students and contribute to retention. The details of all these activities are covered below.

University Council

I’m currently in my sixth year serving on the University Council (UC). The university council is made up of representatives from university leade...

Goal 4 presentation

Jeff Carman, University Council, Vice Chair, reference letter

Tuition Advisory Committee (TAC) The state requires, by statute, that the university maintain a Tuition Advisory Committee, to perform research and make recommendations on student tuition. The committee is composed of members of the university finance team, the university student recruiting/advising team, faculty, and students. We reviewed the proposed budget for the university, along with different state funding scenarios, and considered different adjustments to expenses/tuition. We also reviewed current tuition rates, the history of tuition increases at EOU, and the growth in student enrollment and tuition at other public universities in Oregon. Based on our discussion and analysis, I wrote a recommendation for the committee, and presented it to the Board of Trustees for consideration.

TAC recommendation

Lara Moore, VP Finance, reference letter

Strategic Policy and Operating Committee (SPOC)

SPOC was formed by the university executive leadership to review and create a framework and KPI’s for the strategic plan of the university. I was able to draw on my experience in strategic planning, executive leadership, and management consulting, to help create a cohesive strategic plan for the university.

Charter Team: Recruiting & Retention

The role of the Recruiting Charter Team was to examine our recruiting practices to try and meet our enrollment goals and retain (graduate) a larger percentage of our students. One of the outcomes of this committee work was to establish mandatory advising for the College of Business. We explored our current recruiting practices in an effort to formalize our enrollment process. We also established expanded relationships with our community college partners and created a framework for marketing plans across our regional centers. In addition, we created a marketing plan that allowed us to exceed our enrollment goals for the MBA program.

Charter Team: Advising

I served at the Group Leader for the Advising Charter Team that explored ways to increase enrollment and retention through better advising practices. We completed a university student survey that helped us understand why online students choose EOU. This will be essential for the university as we move forward and try to achieve the aggressive enrollment goals laid out in the strategic plan. We also spent time defining the student lifecycle and the activities that come into play, we created FASA workshops for students, and we identified, and even implemented, new features in Canvas to make online and on campus learning more effective.

Other Committees (Roles)

Interinstitutional Faculty Senate (IFS), Faculty Senator (Executive Committee), 2020

Higher Education Coordinating Committee, Online Course Exchange Steering Committee, IFS Representative, 2020

Association of Academic Professionals, Executive Committee, 2020 – current

VentureWell, National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance, Member, 2020

Bi-Mart Scholarship Committee, Committee Member, 2016, 2017

Industrial Systems Technology Advisory Committee, Blue Mountain Community College, Committee Member, 2016 – 2018

Title III Grant Team, Online Campus Coordinator, 2017

Diversity Committee, Committee Member, 2016 – 2019

Safety Committee, Committee Member, 2018 – 2019

Core Themes Committee (for accreditation), Committee Member, 2018

Teaching and Learning Technology Coordinator Search Committee, Committee Chair, 2018

College of Business Dean Search Committee, Committee Member, 2019

Campus Security Authority, Eastern Oregon University, 2019

Training & Conferences

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Speaker Series (Pub Talks)

I currently serve as the Faculty Adviser for the Entrepreneurship Club (eClub). The Business Leaders of Tomorrow (BLOT) Club has been transformed...

InventOR (Statewide Competition)

The eClub participates in the InventOR statewide prototyping competition sponsored by the Lemelson Foundation and administered by Portland S...

T-Shirt Business

Some clubs sell candles and trees to raise funds, eClub members expressed an interest in starting a business. : ) We collaborated with the lead display designer for Keen Footwear and created four original EOU spirit designs. The club selected two to start with and we had t-shirts produced. The eClub plans to sell the t-shirts at local EOU sporting events ($20 for non-members, $16 for those who sign-up for membership). Safeway corporate is also investigating the possibility of featuring them in the local supermarket. In the future, the eClub will put up a website and sponsor a student competition for new designs. This venture gives the students hands-on experience with starting/running a new business venture.

Business Visits

Venture Conference Visits

An eClub member attended the Willamette Angel Conference in 2017. We are looking at way to provide more club members with that same opportunity.

Entrepreneurial Ecosystem

Student teams have performed research in the past on the state of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in eastern Oregon. The target of our research was the four counties along the I84 corridor in eastern Oregon (Morrow, Umatilla, Union, Baker). We have worked with the OEN and Eastern Oregon Ventures in the past to secure grant funding that will allow us to create and nurture the ecosystem. We have a good working partnership and there are state and federal funds available. The eClub will assist with grant proposals for several upcoming sources of funding.

Venture Conference Visits

We continue to explore the idea of a Maker Space on campus. The university already has quite a bit of equipment on campus (e.g. wood shop, metal shop, physics lab, electronics lab, …). The facilities team at EOU is creating an inventory of our current equipment as a first step. The current idea is to start with a virtual Maker Space that links our equipment and capabilities into a single lab using an online interface where entrepreneurs can schedule lab time. Quite a bit more planning is still required to bring this offering to life. We are always on the hunt for new ideas that are fun and interesting for club members.

College of Business Coffee Hour

The College of Business Coffee Hour started out as a fun way to provide students with a forum for engaging with faculty outside the classroom and to encourage attendance and participation. The entire College of Business team collaborates to make this event a success. I’ve tried to come up with creative themes for the days when I host (usually once per term). The focus is coming up with themes that allow students to explore new food concepts and their own creativity. Just a small sample includes: Hawaiian Luau, regional hot dogs of the United States, 1970’s breakfast foods, and others. I sometimes also use class assignments to tie Coffee Hour into the theme and encourage more student participation. These events are sometimes done in partnership with the eClub. There are a number of local restaurant owners/retailers that have also participated (co-sponsored) in the past.