Schulze Named Westmont VP of Student Life

Edee Schulze, who has served as Bethel University’s vice president of student life for six years, is Westmont’s new vice president of student life. President Gayle D. Beebe made the announcement in an all-campus email April 22 as students returned from Easter vacation.

Schulze replaces Jane Higa Mannoia who retired in August 2013 after being diagnosed with ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease. Tim Wilson has served as interim vice president and dean of students since September 2013.

At Bethel, Schulze oversaw the student life department, which included everything related to the student experience outside the classroom — from athletics to residence life to student activities.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Dr. Schulze to Westmont where she will strengthen our mission of cultivating character and equipping great minds to be the next generation of global leaders,” President Gayle D. Beebe says. “She will continue the effective collaboration between our academic and co-curricular program.”

Prior to working at Bethel, Schulze served at Wheaton College in Illinois for 21 years in a variety of positions including dean of student life (1997-2008). She graduated from California State Polytechnic University before earning a master’s degree at Wheaton and a doctorate from Loyola University Chicago.

“Westmont is singularly focused on being the best Christian, residential, undergraduate, global, liberal arts college in the country,” she says. “This is a place where my gifts will be best applied and used.”

Schulze, who was born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, is looking forward to moving back to California. “I lived here for six years and my sister lives here,” she says. “I had a great experience when I lived in California before. There is something about the west that’s in my native DNA.”

She found the strength of the Christian liberal arts when she began working at Wheaton in 1987. “It was phenomenal the way education was changing the lives of 18- to 22-year-olds. It was transforming their perspectives and empowering them to use their God-given gifts and maximizing their intellectual capacity for Kingdom work.”