The announcement of Vice Provost for Student Affairs Gene Awakuni’s departure and the delay in the search for his replacement have raised concerns among students and community center leaders about the future of the Office of the Vice Provost for Student Affairs, which includes the office of the Dean of Students, Office of Student Activities and the University's community centers.

His exit will leave a void in the team responsible for improving student space, and University administrators said they are still determining the future of the position.

Awakuni, who will leave Stanford in March to become chancellor at the University of Hawaii’s West O’ahu campus, was influential in expanding student space during his three years at the University. He was most noted for his work on the renovation of the first floor of Tresidder Memorial Union and the upcoming overhaul of Old Union to return it to its traditional role as a student hub.

There have been rumors that the office headed by Awakuni will be dissolved and his responsibilities will be transferred to John Bravman, vice provost for undergraduate education. However, University administrators said that a decision regarding the Office of the Vice Provost for Student Affairs has not yet been made.

In an interview with The Daily, University Provost John Etchemendy said that the administration was currently re-evaluating the structure of the Office of VPSA.

“We’ve been talking to all of the people at the next level down in the organization and talking to people who have a lot of interaction with Student Affairs, trying to decide what the right thing to do would be,” he said. “Student Affairs has morphed through the years, and it has been in different forms . . . I thought that this was a good opportunity to think about whether we had the right structure or what it should be.”

Etchemendy added that it is normal for the University to reevaluate the organization of offices when administrators step down.

Etchemendy also put to rest the rumors of combining the Offices of the VPSA with the Office of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, and said that such a move would create “too large an organization to be really effective.”

“The Vice Provost for Student Affairs deals with undergrads and grads, whereas the VPUE focuses only on undergraduates,” Etchemendy said. “[Combining the two] is probably not a way that we would go.”

In addition, concerns were raised regarding the management and future of the various community centers on campus, all currently governed by Student Affairs.

“It’s very likely that we will decide on an interim arrangement,” Etchemendy said concerning the centers. “We will do something, but I don’t believe in rushing. The community centers report to the Dean of Students, and the Dean of Students reports to the VPSA. They will remain under the Dean of Students.”

According to Chris Clarke, assistant director of El Centro Chicano, the community center directors recently met with Etchemendy to discuss some of these issues.

“After Gene Awakuni announced his departure, Provost Etchemendy met with the directors of each of the community centers to gather input about the centers’ needs vis-a-vis the soon to be vacant position,” said Ben Davidson, director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Resources Center.

Many directors said that they were unsure, citing the need to first see how the related offices are restructured.

“It would be hard to say how this [dissolution of VPSA] would affect the Women’s Community Center as it would involve speculation,” said Laura Harrison, director of the Women’s Community Center. “It would depend on what the proposed re-organization would look like.”

Though the administration has still not formed a search committee to fill the pending vacancy in the VPSA, Stanford is still exploring its various options, Etchemendy said.

“We don’t have a committee,” he added. “But we have been talking to organizations, people outside of organizations and students on this matter.”