Bridging Research and Practice

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Back in September, Western Michigan University—a public research institution located in the southwestern corner of the state—released its fall 2024 enrollment and retention numbers, much to the delight of the school’s provost, Dr. Julian Vasquez Heilig.

For the first time in a decade, year-over-year enrollment increased at the university and the overall retention rate was 81.1%, the highest reported since the school began tracking the metric in 1991.

But the numbers also told an important story about underrepresented minority enrollment at the booming university, which boasts a student population of more than 17,000. Black student enrollment, for example, went up 2.3% over the previous year, and there was a bump of 4.7% in Hispanic enrollment.

“We made some big gains in African American retention last year, so we have a really high bar,” Vasquez Heilig told me back in August—prior to the release of the census data. “The fact that we had an increase of 3% last year, we don’t take that for granted.”

For Vasquez Heilig—a prominent public policy researcher who has carved out a national reputation both in and outside academic circles for his scholarship on equity and innovation—the pendulum at WMU is swinging in the right direction.

It took a university-wide approach to zero in on opportunities to rebound the enrollment numbers, particularly in the aftermath of the COVID pandemic, which paralyzed colleges and universities across the nation. It also helped that, shortly before Vasquez Heilig arrived at the university in 2022, WMU received an anonymous donation in the amount of $550 million—the largest single gift to a public university—to help advance this important work.

The Empowering Futures Gift was earmarked to fund scholarships, advance medical education and research, support faculty expertise, increase athletic competitiveness and make possible numerous student-centered initiatives.

Opportunity to make a difference

For the 49-year-old public scholar who has spent much of his career exploring issues related to diversity, equity, and inclusion and anti-racism leadership across the K-12 and higher education landscape, coming to WMU was an opportunity to help propel the 120-year institution forward.

“We’re very fortunate to be one of the very few research universities to have two people of color leading it and that’s remarkable,” says Vasquez Heilig who is both Latino and Black. The school’s president, Dr. Edward B. Montgomery—an accomplished economist who served in the Clinton and Obama administrations—is African American.  “Now that we’re starting to get the results, we’re able to tell our social justice story.”

Equity has long been a part of Western Michigan University’s DNA. Take a stroll through campus and you’ll find visible markers of how the minoritized community shaped the institution dating back decades.

On a recent tour through campus, Vasquez Heilig points out Elson S. Floyd Hall—home to the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences facility— named in honor of the school’s sixth and first African American president to lead WMU. From 1998 to 2003, Floyd served the university before going on to lead the University of Missouri and Washington State University.

Across campus, there’s the school’s college for student success, which is named after the first Black alumna, Dr. Merze Tate, who went on to become an accomplished author and educator. And then there’s the school’s Walker Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnic Relations named after Dr. Lewis Walker, the school’s first Black professor.

“We really stand on the shoulders of those who come before us,” says Vazquez Heilig, whose mother is a Bronco, having graduated from WMU with a master’s degree. “We feel a special responsibility to meet that.”

Wearing one of his fashionable newsboy’s caps that have become apart of his signature style—Vasquez Heilig delights in showing off the newly renovated buildings that adorn the campus, including the student center —which he says illustrates the school’s key priorities and its commitment to its students.

On this day, he is conducting back-to-back meetings with college administrators and faculty to discuss student outcomes and a whole host of initiatives including ways to expand the university’s dual enrollment program with area high schools.
 
On the job

As the school’s chief academic officer, Vasquez Heilig arguably has the most important job on campus: to oversee WMU’s academic planning and strategy, including oversight of all academic programs and standards for accreditation, in collaboration with about 800 faculty and about 700 staff.

“This job requires being on 24-hours a day,” he says. “I don’t expect our staff to be on 24-hours a day unless it’s something really urgent, because I want my team to be able to enjoy evenings with their families, but when we get to the office, it’s full speed ahead.”

And over the course of these past two years, Vasquez Heilig—who came of age in Lansing, Michigan, after earning a bachelor’s and master’s degree at the University of Michigan before going on to earn a Ph.D. at Stanford University—has been moving quickly to boost WMU’s reputation and standing both in and outside Michigan.   

“It’s not just about the data, but the real stories and the real people this work impacts,” Vasquez Heilig says of the mission-work that institutions like WMU do to help transform and sustain communities. 

While some provosts at other institutions tend to be internally focused in their approach to the job, such has not been the case at WMU. Vasquez Heilig has been intentional in engaging with outside stakeholders ranging from the Chamber of Commerce to the local NAACP. That strategy has proven successful and has led to the creation of new partnerships and direct pipelines that now allow for direct engagement with the community, especially Michigan’s Native American elders. At the national level, he serves on a number of boards including the Schott Foundation Governing Board and the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE).

“I meet with superintendents all over the state and visit schools all over the state,” says Vasquez Heilig. “I don’t just do the internal work; I really do enjoy the community engagement work too.”

Shortly after Vasquez Heilig arrived to WMU, he created a student advisory committee, which he convenes bi-weekly, to talk with students about whatever they’re interested in. And despite a grueling schedule that has taken him overseas recently to strengthen partnerships with schools in China and Japan, he regularly makes time to engage in a game of basketball with a regular group of international students or to snap selfies with student leaders.

The life of a scholar

Vasquez Heilig’s early interest in policy work began during his days at the University of Michigan when he worked as an undergraduate research assistant for Dr. Sylvia Hurtado, who was then an assistant professor at Michigan but is now a Distinguished Professor of Education at UCLA.

After completing his studies at UMich, Vasquez Heilig took a job working for Dr. Rod Paige, who at the time was Superintendent of the Houston Independent Schools District in Texas. Paige eventually went on to become U.S. Secretary of Education under President George W. Bush and became the architect of The No Child Left Behind, which was implemented in Houston long before it became national policy.

“There were a lot of things happening in Houston that didn’t add up to me,” says Vasquez Heilig. “I decided I wanted to go back to graduate school because I wanted to analyze those policies.”

An encounter with Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond, the renowned education researcher at Stanford University, led to Vasquez Heilig being hired as her researcher while completing his Ph.D. at Stanford.

At the encouragement of Darling-Hammond, Vasquez Heilig applied for a faculty position at the University of Texas at Austin, where, over an eight-year tenure there, he won widespread recognition and accolades for his groundbreaking research on educational policies and their impact on students of color throughout the state of Texas.

It was also the beginning of his rise through the academy.   

Two years after gaining tenure at UT- Austin, Vasquez Heilig was recruited to California State University in Sacramento to become director and professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, where he was offered full professor.

“People thought I was crazy to leave Texas,” recalls Vasquez Heilig, who says that, while he enjoyed his experience there, he welcomed the opportunity to learn more about a minority serving institution and get hands-on experience working within a system of colleges.

It was during those five years that Vasquez Heilig became involved with the California NAACP, lending his expertise to helping shape policy in the Golden State and emerging issues that were making their way into the national discourse.

In 2018, he was named dean of the College of Education at the University of Kentucky, where he strategically increased student enrollment by 63 percent and led 3,000 students, staff and faculty in a college that touted a $25 million budget. Under his leadership, first-year students majoring in teacher preparation programs grew by 275%, and he was intentional about recruiting faculty of color to the college and helping to diversify the number of education majors.

Given the success in his previous positions, it’s no surprise to those who know him best that Vasquez Heilig was named one of two finalists in September to become the next president of the University of Hawaii’s 10-campus public higher education system. University officials expect to announce their pick later this month.  

“From the first day that I met him, I could see that Julian was very committed to righting the social injustices and ensuring that people move forward,” says Darling-Hammond, who is professor emerita and founding president of the Learning Policy Institute at Stanford University.

She says that much of the research that Vasquez Heilig engaged in with her during those early years at Stanford focused on how teachers could best support schoolchildren in the classroom.

“He can really see what is going to be problematic and is deeply committed to addressing those issues in ways that are very constructive and productive,” she says, crediting him with helping to diversify teacher education and assisting his colleagues to become better scholars and researchers. “He always leaves a place stronger than when he came in.”