Rev. Dr. Shannon W. Dycus, current EMU vice president for student affairs, equity, and belonging, was named EMU’s interim president on Friday, Apr. 11. This comes after president Dr. Susan Huxman announced her plans to retire at the end of the 2024-2025 school year. After Huxman’s announcement, a presidential search committee was created to help find EMU’s interim president, and the job position was posted for all to apply. Upon seeing this announcement and newly posted position, Dycus decided to put her name in the running and apply.
“This is an interim role for two years that is following what has been a really challenging year for EMU. A lot of change has occurred and I’ve been a part of a lot of the changes we have envisioned,” Dycus shared when asked why she chose to apply. “How do I take advantage of my existing leadership and help us keep pushing forward in a time in these next two years that are really important to our health and sustainability?”
In the past year, EMU has been vocal about issues they’ve been facing, including financial challenges and decreased enrollment. To mend these issues, EMU has announced several initiatives that involve reimagining intercultural programs, closing academic programs with low enrollment, and creating a new academic model to better prepare students for future careers. Dycus’ role as vice president has placed her in the rooms where these big conversations are taking place, and she believed her familiarity with EMU and these issues made her strongly suited to take on the role of interim president.
Dycus began working at EMU in 2019 as a dean of students and she currently leads EMU’s student life, DEI, and athletics departments, making her path to becoming interim president out of the ordinary. “Most people who become presidents don’t come from the path that I am going,” Dycus shared. “Very few times does someone come from student affairs or DEI into a president’s role.”
Despite taking a path that is seemingly unconventional, Dycus believes her time and various roles at EMU will serve this position well.
“I know what it feels like and what’s important on the ground—like with students at 10am in Common Grounds—that version of campus and that version of our reality, in a way that most other administrators on this campus don’t know because that’s not their responsibility,” she shared. “To then lead from a president’s perspective with that awareness feels like a real gift. It feels like I can not only keep that awareness in my leadership but also [means that I] get to tell the story of who our students are and what this community means for our students.”
Dycus’ appointment as interim president came from a unanimous vote from the EMU Board of Trustees, a vote of confidence that makes her the first Black woman to hold this position in EMU’s 108 year history. When asked about starting a new legacy at EMU, Dycus shared that she’s not starting anything, rather she’s continuing work that’s been in motion for years.
“As a Black woman who has been shaped by a village of other incredible Black women, I don’t believe I am ever starting anything. I think about the first Black women who attended EMU as students. I think about Roberta Webb or Lucy Simms, who was a Black woman in this community who sacrificed significantly for the work of education,” Dycus shared. “There has always been the energy and the force of Black women in this work, and I get to take it to a new corner, but I’m not starting anything new, I’m participating in an incredible legacy.”
As Dycus joins this legacy, there are many things she hopes to accomplish and leave in great condition when EMU’s next president takes their seat in office.
“We’ve got a lot of changes that we are in mid-motion on, so some of the reimagining work that’s happening to really streamline our academic programs. I hope to be at the end of that work so that the person who comes in can get a school that has an academic program that’s clear and focused.”
Dycus also hopes to create more collaborative environment during her time as president, “I think the last couple of years we’ve lost some cohesion as a campus and just to be able to hand over a group of people who are committed and excited and energized for the work that we’re doing is what I hope to also pay attention to.”
Although she’s stepping into this position during a time where EMU is actively under reconstruction, Dycus wants students, faculty, families, alumni, and all others who care deeply about EMU to rest assured that EMU is standing strong.
“EMU is here because it’s really important for us to keep creating leaders who are shaped by this community. There’s enough of us who believe in what we’re doing that we’re not going to peter out anytime soon.”
