By: Joshua Ceballos/News Director
Journalist, Director of Student Activities, University Ombudsman and Vice President of Student Affairs: all of these positions and more describe FIU giant Larry Lunsford, who officially retires on Feb. 28, 2019 after 29 years of service.
On Monday, Dec. 17, the University hosted a retirement ceremony to celebrate Lunsford’s long career, and guests from throughout his tenure came to share their respect, including alumni and former administrators who flew in from around the country.
The retirement ceremony coincided with Lunsford’s designation as a 2018 National Association of Student Personnel Administrators Pillar of the Profession.
Pillar of the Profession is an honor bestowed upon individuals in student affairs and higher education.
“Each individual is nominated and supported for designation as a Pillar by colleagues, students, friends,” according to the NASPA website. “If selected as a Pillar, the nominator and selected Foundation Board member will raise $3,500 in the name of the individual being nominated to further research and scholarship in student affairs.”
Anthony DeSantis, assistant vice president for Student Affairs while Lunsford was still working, said that Larry was an obvious choice for Pillar of the Profession because of how much he has contributed to Student Affairs and to the student body.
“Larry flies under the radar because he doesn’t promote himself, but he is laser focused on helping his team and the students,” said DeSantis.
Lunsford started at the University in November 1989 as the director of student activities, where he looked over the small Greek system that FIU had at the time, as well as the student government. As a former journalist, he said he felt that it was important for FIU to have a student newspaper, so in 1991 he assisted in the founding of The Beacon, the student media outlet which would eventually become PantherNOW.
Many things that make up our University experience weren’t always around, and it was Lunsford that brought them to campus.
When former University President Modesto Maidique said that FIU needed more traditions, Lunsford brought up the idea of Freshman convocation to introduce students to the University community. Now the ceremony is hosted every year.
Maidique, who hired Lunsford back in 1989 as director of student activities, told Student Media that Lunsford is a “classic FIU success story.”
“Larry has two of the most important qualities an executive can have,” said Maidique. “One: He has unimpeachable integrity and he is well respected for that. Two: he has an amazing work ethic. If you want something done, you ask Larry to do it.”
First year experience, the class that teaches freshmen about the University and its services was an idea that Lunsford brought to the school, and he even co-authored the textbook that goes along with the class.
Lunsford’s influences can be found all over campus, and the people who worked with him say he will be sorely missed.
“He dropped knowledge on the daily, and I’m going to miss the daily chats that he and I had together,” said DeSantis.
Although Lunsford is officially leaving office in February, he is currently on administrative leave to coauthor a book on leading Student Affairs in an urban serving university. He told Student Media that he was asked to write two chapters of the book by a professor from California State University at Long Beach, and he’s been drawing on experiences and advice from his long career to contribute to the book.
After his chapters are done and he’s gone from FIU, Lunsford said that he won’t be sitting around.
“I’m going to be keeping busy. I’ve been asked to be a keynote speaker at several Student Affairs events in Orlando and in Vegas. I’m also planning to travel to Europe or to New york to visit my son,” said Lunsford.
After 29 years at the University, rather than focus on the things that he did, Lunsford chose instead to thank the school and its community for what it did for him.
“I’d like to say to everyone, ‘thank you for the opportunity.’ I thought I would only be here for three years, but they kept giving me more and more opportunities,” said Lunsford. “Not a lot of people can say they reached their dream career goal and retired from there, but I have.”
Images retrieved from FIU Flickr
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