KSU’s Vice President for Student Success Jerome Ratchford announced last week that he will retire in the summer of 2014 after 26 years with the university.
Ratchford started at KSU in 1988 when he was hired as the school’s coordinator of Minority and International Student Retention Services. He spent about a year in that position before being promoted to director of the Department of Student Development.
Ratchford directed the Department of Student Development for about 15 years before becoming the dean of students and subsequently the vice president for Student Success. This will be his sixth year in that position.
He said he looks forward to his retirement, which will most likely occur sometime in late July.
“I’m looking to spend more time vacationing and becoming involved with some civic matters in my community as well as with my church,” Ratchford said. “It [also] affords me the opportunity to spend more time with my wife.”
He and his wife Cynthia have been married “36 lovely years.”
As vice president for Student Success, Ratchford oversees what he said is KSU’s third largest division and serves as a member of President Papp’s cabinet.
“I have a love affair with Kennesaw,” he said. “That’s why I’ve stayed for 25 years.”
Ratchford lives in the Cascade area of Atlanta and has commuted 40 miles to and from work since he began working at KSU in the late ‘80s.
“I love working here and I love where I stay, and I didn’t want to change either one of those venues,” he said.
Ratchford said the university has changed drastically since he first arrived.
“When I came here, the numbers were small—the visibility of students of color was very, very small,” he said. “One of the things I’ve seen and have been instrumentally involved in is the growth of inclusion and multiculturalism on the campus.
“The Department of Student Development was a strong catalyst for change because the department [advocated] for international students, minority students, adult learners and disabled learners,” Ratchford continued. “We did such a great job in that department that it revolutionized the campus in terms of inclusion.”
He said that in each role he’s had at KSU, he’s been given the “opportunity to work with students and understand and identify with their experiences” and he “did whatever [he] could to make those experiences very positive.”
Ratchford said he was also instrumental in diversifying the Student Activities and Budget Advisory Committee, the group that allocates funding for KSU’s registered student organizations.
He said that now there are as many as 250 to 300 RSOs at a time.
Director of Student Life Kathy Alday, who has worked with Ratchford 24 years, said she is going to miss him very much when he leaves. “The thing I value most about Dr. Ratchford is that he’s very thorough and he takes the time to think about things,” Alday said. “He’s just phenomenal.”
“I will miss going to student activities as a student sponsor and vicariously experiencing what they experience,” Ratchford said. “I will miss that tremendously and I will particularly miss the camaraderie and relationships with my colleagues in Student Success.”
