Maurice Harris did not foresee becoming an educator when he was working on his Master of Public Administration at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.

‘In the back of my mind, I was thinking I would probably go out and work in investment banking some more, selling investment services to cities and municipalities,’ Harris said.

But Harris’ career has taken on a different path, as he was chosen last week as the new dean of undergraduate admissions at Syracuse University. He will be responsible for recruiting students to SU.

Harris, the current associate dean for graduate programs in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management, will be replacing Susan Donovan after a national search was conducted for a replacement. Harris is described by colleagues as a challenge-taker, an avid people-person with a high energy level and a natural leader.

Harris will take on his role as the dean of undergraduate admissions Jan. 1 and is still acting as the associate dean in Whitman, currently traveling the country to recruit new students.

Harris began his career as an investment banker in Texas, with an undergraduate degree from Bowling Green State University and an interest in combining business administration with public administration.  

After finishing his master’s degree, Harris began a doctorate in the area of public administration at Maxwell, but found it did not quite fit his interests. Harris left to work for a company in Washington, D.C., that offered financial services to cities. 

When the company was bought out, Harris decided to return to Whitman for a Ph.D. in business administration with a concentration in finance and economics.

When working on his doctorate, Harris became interested in teaching. After finishing his doctorate, he ended up at Bentley College — now Bentley University — and then the University of New Hampshire.

It was while Harris was at UNH that he received a phone call from Peter Koveos, Whitman’s chair of the financial department at the time. 

Harris didn’t see the phone call as unusual at first. Koveos was always very involved in the lives of doctoral students and often would check up on past Whitman students, Harris said. But this time, Koveos had something different in mind for Harris.

‘In the course of the conversation, he hinted around that they were looking for a finance professor back at Whitman and asked if I would be interested,’ Harris said.

At first, Harris said he wasn’t enthralled by the idea and had concerns about returning. He had lived in Syracuse on and off for many years as a student and said he wondered if he could move back there as a professional.

But Harris did return to SU in 2005 as an assistant professor of finance and said the decision to return was one of the best he has made in his life. He said Whitman, which had a new building and a new dean, was a combination of the best of the old and the new.

‘It was such a vibrant, exciting time for Whitman,’ Harris said. ‘It was a real new day for the School of Management with new leadership, new facility and new personnel.’

The decision to recruit Harris was an easy one for Whitman, said Melvin Stith, dean of Whitman. Harris quickly escalated to a more permanent position, Stith said. He said those at Whitman quickly discovered Harris could do a lot to make Whitman a better place for faculty, staff and students.

‘After working with him for a year, I went back to the department chair and said we had to find a way to see if he’s interested in staying at Whitman,’ Stith said.

Harris stayed at Whitman, and when the school was looking for a new associate dean of the master’s programs in July 2008, the choice was simple, Stith said.

The school was trying to rebuild the master’s program to attract more students, a goal Harris quickly and skillfully completed, Stith said. 

‘When deans say we need to build this certain program, and we want these types of students, he’ll go out and find those students and help build the brand for Syracuse,’ Stith said.

Stith cited Harris’ work with the master’s in finance program as an example of Harris’ capabilities. The program only had three or four students when Harris began, but had more than 40 students last year, Stith said.

‘I call it the ‘Maurice Master’s in Finance Program’ now,’ Stith said. ‘I told him about recruiting more students, ‘Maurice, this is your office. If you can do it, go do it.’ And he did.’

Donald Saleh, vice president for enrollment management, said as soon as Harris expressed interest in the dean of undergraduate admissions position, he emerged as one of the top candidates with his leadership and creativity.

‘Maurice has really natural leadership qualities, and this is an important leadership position,’ Saleh said. ‘But certainly his creativity and his willingness to ask probing questions about what we’re doing in admissions and why we’re doing those things set Maurice apart from other candidates.’

Harris’ desire to be in a leadership position struck Saleh as an interesting asset, Saleh said. Saleh said Harris is driven to be a leader, an ability he can use as an educator and administrator at SU.

Harris said he thinks his skills in both education and administration will help him succeed in his new position.

‘As an educator, I understand curriculum and the importance of the delivery of the curriculum,’ Harris said. ‘As an administrator, I understand how important it is to offer a product, the curriculum, that is perceived as value.’

Harris compared education to a product and said if the product is not innovative enough and is not marketed well enough, it will not sell.  Harris said this is the strategy he plans to bring to the dean of undergraduate admissions.

Harris has had personal experience working with undergraduate students by trying to find the right college for his two nieces and one nephew. 

‘I’ve helped them decide upon schools, and we went through all of that together at that time,’ Harris said. ‘That was even before I decided to take this job, it was just because I was an active uncle.’

medelane@syr.edu

Published on October 27, 2010 at 12:00 pm

Contact Meghin: medelane@syr.edu | @meghinwithani