Todd Carter, the director of research and assessment at Seward County Community College / Area Technical School, has accepted the position of dean of academic affairs. The announcement was made by president Dr. Duane Dunn on Feb. 10. “Todd will be a great addition to our administrative team,” Dunn said. Carter will fill the position of dean of academic affairs due to the retirement of the current dean Cynthia Rapp, who will retire later this summer, and Carter will start July 1. Carter graduated from Wichita State University and has been with Seward County Community College more than 20 years. Carter has experience in different positions at SCCC/ATS, such as math, science, and HPERD division chair, biology faculty, and director of research and assessment. Carter has been involved in teaching as well as making changes institutionally as division chair and as director of grant projects at the college. “I enjoy those leadership opportunities; therefore, taking the next step to the position of dean of academic affairs would allow me to take those leadership opportunities to the next level.” Having a lot of good friends and colleagues, especially in the institution at SCCC/ATS, is the reason Carter has stayed at Seward for 23 years. “This college has a great reputation. The people here at Seward County are fantastic. I couldn’t think of anywhere else that I’d rather be,” Carter said. The whole interview process was a little weird to Carter because he’s known the interviewers for a long time. The interviewers and Carter himself had to put themselves in a totally different perspective on each other in order to work together during the interview. With no lag time in between changing duties, Carter expects to get right to work as dean. Carter confessed that all the paper work to start his new position didn’t really overwhelm him since this is not the first time he’s been through a change like this one. Carter wants to hold on to the history and knowledge of the institution. “The historical background is important because there are some real core cultural pieces for this institution that we hold onto. One of those is that the student is at the center of everything that we do,” Carter said. “We have a culture of support for all the employees of this institution. One of the reasons we have that support is because we are focused on what best for the students,” Carter said. Carter’s message to the student body of Seward County Community college is, “In this position of dean of academic affairs, we want to keep improving, even though we are in the top 10 percent. There are things we can do to improve that and make sure students achieve their educational goals.”