Big shoes to fill

After more than eight years of service to Norwich University, Brig. Gen. Michael Kelley has announced he is stepping down as vice president of student affairs and commandant of cadets at the end of the academic year in May 2012. For this year, Col. Richard

Van Arnam will act as interim commandant, according to a letter from Norwich President Richard Schneider.

Kelley will continue as vice president for academic affairs. Although Kelley is stepping down as commandant, Van Aram is assigned under his command and "will be the senior administrative officer responsible for all leadership programs" according to President Schneider's letter.

Van Arnam is not new to Norwich; he is an alumnus who graduated with the class of '84. He is also the associate vice president for leadership development, and was a gift officer in the 1990's.

Along with being an accomplished Army officer, Van Arnam received his master's of business administration from the University of Michigan in 1993. "Later on, I ended up managing a sales force in Columbus, Ohio," Van Arnam said.

The two factors, the Army and sales, helped bring him back to Norwich. "Because I was in the Army I was hanging around with a lot of Norwich guys," Van Arnam said. It seemed where ever Van Arnam went, Norwich alum were there. "I kept bumping into my classmates and that helped me want to stay connected with the school."

Though much has changed since he came to the campus as a rook in the fall of 1980, Van Arnam still believes the corps of cadets is as tough as ever. "I think the corps is a lot harder today than it was when I was here," he said.

There are differences, of course. "I think as a culture we are busier today and the ability to communicate is vastly different," he said.

Calling home has changed, he said. "Calling home once a week,  a couple of times a month was an expectation, but it was an expensive phone call to make," Van Arnam said. "A 20-minute phone call between me and my family was spending money, where today you can call for free.

Even the uniforms are different, he said. "There are more uniforms to maintain today and we didn't have the M-14's," Van Arnam said.

Van Arnam said being a college student is a much more of a challenge today. "There's a lot more for students to do, the speed of life has picked up," Van Arnam said, "I think being a student today is more challenging than it was 30 years ago."

Though the university changed over the years, it did not stop Van Arnam from wanting to return to Norwich and to Vermont; his family also helped him return to his college roots. "I was married at the time, and we had young children," Van Arnam said. "We really wanted a small-town, rural lifestyle for them."

Van Arnam was brought to the university to help split the two roles that Kelley had been tasked with over the last few years. "(Kelley's) plate was full, massively full," Van Arnam said.

"Before I was torn, I had two roles, I was thinking about all students, but I was also thinking about the corps of cadets," Kelley said. Between the two offices, Kelley did not feel he was spending enough on student activities.

"We are really focused on driving retention here," Van Arnam said. "We felt the need to increase the commandant's staff." To help spread the workload, the commandant staff for the corps of cadets has grown to include more non-commissioned staff as well as junior officers.

After this increase, the next step was logical: "It made sense to de-couple the vice president for student affairs from the commandant's position," Van Arnam said.

With Van Arnam as commandant, Kelley has been able to grasp control and take a deeper look into student affairs. "I'm looking out the window or umbrella, to include athletics, to activities, to lifestyle: corps, civilian and commuter," Kelley said.

As the new commandant of cadets, Van Arnam is tasked with helping the leadership in the corps of cadets, guiding the cadet colonel and the rest of the cadet leadership. "I meet with him about once or twice a week," said Cadet Col. Donald DiBastiani, a 20-year-old senior double major in business management and accounting from Norrisville, Md.

 "He has a really energetic attitude towards what he thinks the corps should have," said William Day, a 21-year-old chemistry major from Portland, Maine. "It's nice to have the opinion of someone who is in the military right now."

"We go through policies with him," DiBastiani said. "He's helped me out in terms of things like common courtesy and even my resume." Van Arnam has been a huge help in shaping the corps and aiding the students become top leaders, according to DiBastiani.

Van Arnam's main focus is the future of the school and how to look at the overall picture. Strategic thinking is the name of the game. "I gave Col. Van Arnam two pieces of advice: think strategically," Kelley said, "The other was, it's a marathon, not a sprint."

Van Arnam's other focus is the students of Norwich, and ensuring that they graduate. "Most important is getting (the students) out into the world to solve problems, because there is no shortage of problems that need to be solved," Van Arnam said.