After 35 years at Boise State University, Dean of Extended Studies Mark Wheeler is retiring on June 30. Wheeler has been dean of the Division of Extended Studies for 17 years.
“It’s been extremely fulfilling,” Wheeler said. “Really a privilege to help people, and help Idahoans, access higher education through all the different programs that we have.”
Wheeler oversees seven public-facing programs, including the Concurrent Enrollment Program (CEP), Boise State Online, Summer Sessions, Professional and Continuing Education (PACE), Community Impact Programs (CIP), Boise State Public Radio and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.
“I always had a vision that Extended Studies was uniquely positioned to help people flow in and out of the university’s educational opportunities as their life changed,” Wheeler said. “We have that full continuum from very young to older and seeing that continuum really get fleshed out and to see so many students kind of in that ecosystem has been really heartwarming for me.”
Background
Wheeler is a first generation college student and graduated from Boise State with a bachelor’s degree in English in 1989. Upon graduation, Wheeler turned down a high school English teacher position to begin his higher education career at Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston. He worked for a year and a half in the admissions department, helping with high school visits, financial aid, recruitment and advising.
He then transitioned to Boise State admissions, starting as an admissions counselor and eventually moving up to the dean of enrollment services and interim vice president for student affairs positions.
Wheeler worked in Boise State student affairs for 18 years before taking over as the dean of Extended Studies in 2007. At the time, Extended Studies had a total of 35 staff members and worked at the West Campus, now the campus of the College of Western Idaho in Nampa.
“It really intrigued me to jump from student affairs to something completely different,” Wheeler said. “I thought it’d be good to do something else and I also saw a lot of upside in Extended Studies.
“Extended Studies’ role back then was administering (the West Campus). But we knew when I started that the College of Western Idaho was going to happen and we would no longer have to do that. I was intrigued with the opportunity of, ok, what should Extended Studies do now? I knew concurrent enrollment was going to grow a lot because the (Idaho State Board of Education) was talking about it a lot. The state board of education was encouraging all the universities to get more involved. I saw a lot of potential, so I took the job over here and really started working and planning with the whole staff.”
Extended Studies and Concurrent Enrollment Today
Under Wheeler’s leadership, the Division of Extended Studies has grown to over 180 staff members and the seven public-facing programs, serving over 34,000 people a year.
One of the biggest programs is the Concurrent Enrollment Program which serves over 7,000 high school students a year.
“I think it’s great that the program has grown because that shows that we’re trying our best to meet the demand out there,” Wheeler said. “But the important thing to me is we know from studies of our own as well as the state board of education that concurrent enrollment students are indeed more likely to go onto college, more likely to be successful in college and much more likely to graduate in four years.”
In addition to the dean and admissions positions, Wheeler has also served in interim positions with the Office of the Registrar and Boise State Public Radio. This past spring, he represented Boise State’s staff and administration as a subcommittee chair member for the search of the university’s next president.
Wheeler and his wife plan to move to Oregon this summer after 35 years of living in the Treasure Valley. Extended Studies Associate Dean Niki Callison will move into the interim dean position on July 1.
“You develop an appreciation, not just for the things we do here in Extended Studies, but for all the many, many, many things that Boise State University does,” Wheeler said. “It’s been my privilege to work in higher education for 36 and a half years. I didn’t set out to make that my career, but I can’t imagine a more fulfilling one.”
Visit the Division of Extended Studies website to learn more about its program options.