Vice President for Finance and Administration Ronald F. VanSteeland announced Friday that he will retire from Grand Valley State University on March 31, 2001. He will leave after 35 years with the university.
I will have completed 35 years with Grand Valley in February, VanSteeland said. I can leave with the sense that the university's fiscal affairs are in good order, the Pew Campus projects will be completed, and an excellent senior management team is in place to manage the succession to new leadership. It's time for me to spend more time traveling and enjoying my family, and to do some consulting and volunteer work.
VanSteeland joined Grand Valley State College in 1966 as personnel officer and established Grand Valley's first personnel office. In 1968 he was appointed business manager, and in 1973 was named vice president of the college. He was appointed to his present position in 1979.
His executive responsibilities cover the university's offices of Business and Finance, Facilities Services and Planning, Human Resources, University Counsel, Intercollegiate Athletics, and the Meadows Golf Course. He serves as treasurer for the GVSU Board of Control and also for the Grand Valley University Foundation.
Everyone who joined Grand Valley in the first few years was running a risk, VanSteeland recalled.
At that time, we had 1,000 students, but our enrollment was way behind legislative expectation. We were also going through our first accreditation. We were really reassessing our mission.
The college needed more programs and student housing, he said, and the university has yet to reach the level of responsiveness to the community it has today.
While GVSU has grown along with the rest of West Michigan, VanSteeland said it's too simple to merely link the two.
It's been more than geography. We've worked to develop programs students want to take and our region's employers need us to offer, he said.
Despite the university's remarkable physical expansion that has occurred under VanSteeland's leadership, he said his top two points of pride are Grand Valley's efficiency, and the beauty of its campuses.
As a faculty and staff, without state per student appropriations where they should be, we've learned to do more with less. And the beauty of our campuses in Allendale, Grand Rapids, Holland, and soon Muskegon sets the tone for learning and working at Grand Valley.
Efficiency and attractiveness are major accomplishments, and things we can all be proud of, VanSteeland said.
He said he plans to continue to serve on boards and be available to serve the university in any way he can in his retirement. He also plans to spend more time with music.
He regularly leads a group of faculty and staff carolers on a winter holiday tour of the Allendale Campus to help set a festive mood.
Maybe somebody will invite me back for the holidays, VanSteeland said.
