McDaniel College named Beth Gerl to the position of Vice President and Dean of Student affairs, effective July 1, 2006. Currently Gerl is serving as Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students at Spring Hill College, a four-year, coeducational, liberal arts college in Mobile, Ala. She has also served as the chief student affairs officer at Hendrix College and was interim vice president for student affairs at Mount Union College.

“We are excited to welcome Beth to McDaniel College,” says President Joan Develin Coley. “Our students will benefit from the considerable experience and enthusiasm she brings to the position. She embraces our liberal arts mission as well as our vision for the future of McDaniel.”

At Spring Hill since 2002, Gerl manages and supervises residence life, student activities, sororities and fraternities, multicultural student affairs, health and counseling services, intercollegiate athletics, recreation and intramurals, orientation programs, food service, campus-center operations, postal services and judicial affairs. She also has overseen design and construction of an $11-million residence hall and multiple renovation projects. Additionally, she is a team leader for the college’s Hurricane Response Plan and liaison for the City of Mobile Undergraduate Drinking Task Force.

Gerl received her undergraduate degree from Illinois Wesleyan University and a master’s from Illinois State University in counselor education and higher education. She also completed 15 hours of post-graduate work in educational administration at Illinois State University and, in 1997, was one of only 30 women administrators chosen for the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators Alice Manicure Symposium for Women Entering Chief Student Affairs Positions.

She is expected to move to a college home on campus early in the summer.

Gerl will succeed Vice President and Dean of Student Affairs Phil Sayre, who will retire this June after more than 20 years of service to the College. Since his arrival as Dean of Students in 1984, Sayre led the student-affairs team as the College embraced affinity-style housing, renewed student interest in community service, improved campus safety and health services, expanded both personal counseling and career guidance and placement, and provided oversight for the North Village apartments.