Dub Oliver - interim Vice President For Student Life

Dub Oliver wears many hats these days, including his Class of '87 slime cap. One month after being named assistant vice president for student life in June, he was promoted to interim vice president for student life. That was while he was still serving as interim director of Baylor's chapel program and serving as interim pastor of Canaan Baptist Church in Crawford.

Oliver was selected as interim soon after Eileen Hulme, vice president for student life since 2001, announced she was taking a position at Azusa Pacific University. Oliver slipped into that hat easily; he's been serving students for the past 15 years, and he loves it. "It's the passion of my life to help influence young people and to see the growth and development that students experience while here at Baylor," says Oliver, BS '87. "It's phenomenal to just share life with them."

He earned his master's degree in educational psychology in 1991 and his doctorate in educational administration in 2001 from Texas A&M. He served as director of student activities for nine years and then was named as dean for student development in 2001. He was honored as a Mortar Board Outstanding Professor in 1995 and 2001. In addition, he was recognized by the Baylor Alumni Association as an Outstanding Young Alumnus in 2004.

He took over Baylor's twice-weekly chapel program when its director left Baylor last January. Oliver started a chapel committee of 12 students last spring to get their input on selection of speakers. A new interim chaplain was named in August. As to his pastor's hat, he agreed to preach just one Sunday as a favor to the Canaan Baptist Church, and he's been there ever since, more than a year and a half. "We average about 40 people per week, and they are great, great people."

Oliver's wife, Susie, an Alumna-By-Choice, teaches special education and physical education in the Waco ISD. They have one daughter, Callie, 13, who is Baylor through and through. "She is going to be Baylor Class of 2014," her proud dad laughs.

"I hope that Baylor students have the same experience that I had," Oliver says. "That it's a place that literally transforms their lives and that they discover who they are and who God intends for them to be." - Jennifer Russell