Finalists for president to visit CSC this week

Among the meetings scheduled are ones with community residents late Tuesday afternoon in the Chicoine Atrium of the Mari Sandoz High Plains Heritage Center. The meetings, to last 30 minutes each, begin at 3:45 p.m. with Aloia, 4:30 p.m. with Zimmerman and 5:15 p.m. with Svaldi. All friends of the college are encouraged to attend.

Aloia earned a bachelor’s degree in history from St. Mary’s College at Moraga, Calif., in 1969. He added his teaching credentials from San Francisco State University in 1971 and earned a Ph.D. in special education from the University of California, Riverside in 1976.

He began his career as a physical education teacher at an elementary school at San Pablo, Calif. He was an assistant football coach at St. Mary’s College and San Francisco State and was the head wrestling coach for a year at UC-Riverside, where he also was a research assistant for the School of Education.

Aloia’s other positions have included director and teacher at Boys Town of the Desert at Beaumont, Calif., and educational specialist for the Bureau of Education for the Handicapped in the U.S. Office of Education in Washington, D.C.

From 1977-79, he was an assistant professor of special education at the University of Arizona. He also spent one year as chairman of special education at Los Molinos High School in California and three years as a professor of special education at Arkansas State University at Jonesboro.

In 1984, Aloia became chairman and professor of special education at State University College at Geneseo, N.Y. He remained there until 1990, when he became associate vice president for research and dean of graduate studies at Illinois State University at Normal. He held that position five years before becoming professor of special education at that institution. Since 2001, he has held his present positions at Florida Atlantic University.

Aloia was named educator of the year by the Arizona Association of Retarded Citizens in 1977-78, was chosen the outstanding faculty member at Arkansas State University in 1982-83, was selected the faculty member of the year at Illinois State during Greek Week in 1997-98 and was chosen educator of the year at ISU by the Student Education Association in 2000-01.

Svaldi received an associate of arts degree from the junior college at Grand Junction, Colo., that preceded Mesa State College as a four-year institution, earned his bachelor’s degree in speech and English from the University of Northern Colorado at Greeley in 1970 and received his master’s degree from UNC in speech communications in 1972. He earned a Ph.D. in communication studies from Northwestern University at Evanston, Ill., in 1983.

He taught communication arts at Washburn University at Topeka, Kan., 1972-76, and was assistant professor of speech at Eastern Illinois University at Charleston 1978-81 and at West Georgia College at Carrollton 1981-86.

Svaldi went to Adams State in 1986 as a professor of communication. He was the college’s vice president for academic affairs from June 1998 to December 2002, when he was promoted to provost. At Adams State, he led the way in founding the Institutional Research and Assessment Office and the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching.

While he was a graduate student at Northwestern, Svaldi received the award for the outstanding dissertation in rhetoric and public address. In 1990, he received the Gustavus Myers Award for the outstanding publication in the field of human rights.

Zimmerman earned all three of his degrees from the University of California, Riverside. His bachelor’s and master’s degrees were in political science while he received his Ph.D. in public law, American politics and public administration.

He began working at Eastern Washington University in 1970, serving as a professor of government for 30 years. During that period, he assumed numerous additional responsibilities. They included director/developer for staff development and training for the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services for eight years, dean of the School of Public Affairs 12 years, acting dean of the College of Letters and Social Sciences two years, special assistant to the president one year and was the institution’s representative on the Partnership for Rural Improvement for 13 years.

In 1998, Zimmerman became provost and vice president for academic affairs at EWU for 18 months. He also served as acting president of the university for 4 1/2 months following the sudden resignation of the president.

In 2000-01, he served 11 months as interim president of Lewis-Clark State College at Lewiston, Idaho. A few months after that appointment ended, he returned to Eastern Washington to as special assistant to the provost for educational outreach. During the past two years, he has held his present position of special assistant to the dean of the College of Business and Public Administration at the university.

Last April, the current Chadron State president, Dr. Tom Krepel, resigned effective June 30, 2005. He has filled the position nearly seven years.