On June 1, former associate provost Jessica Oyler was appointed vice president of Student Access and Success at Weber State University.

Student Access and Success is a new division at WSU that aligns areas of Enrollment Management and Student Success. Oyler’s new position replaces the vice president of Student Affairs and will report to the president and provost of WSU.

According to a press release from WSU, SAS will focus on recruiting and retaining all students and will provide educational experiences outside the classroom.

“Dr. Oyler is laser-focused on student success, and she’s going to bring a passion and fresh perspective to this important new role,” WSU President Brad Mortensen said in a press release.

In the past few months, Oyler has taken many opportunities to make herself more accessible to students from all backgrounds. Prior to the semester, she sent out an email survey, asking how students felt about the coming semester and if there were any concerns she could address.

Results of the survey revealed that the top concerns for incoming students were paying for school, employment commitments, making friends at school and health concerns.

“About 20% of our students are worried about making friends coming to school, and so I’ve been reaching out to everybody wondering how … we help with this,” Oyler said.

Oyler’s primary focus is to be more accessible to students across the Ogden and Davis campuses. She is constantly seeking new ways to engage with students and applying their needs and concerns to her mindset.

“My goal, personally, is to be accessible to students, and I’ve sent out a couple of emails earlier this week to check in on that sort of thing,” Oyler said. “I also want to remove barriers, and where we have them for students and really work to where our services are intuitive for people.”