Wheeler hired for SDSU-IV administrative post
CALEXICO – A veteran educator from San Diego State University’s main campus has accepted a position on the administrative team of SDSU-Imperial Valley as its new Associate Dean for Academic Affairs.
SDSU-IV said Dr. Mark R. Wheeler will assume his new position in June, bringing with him a unique mix of academic accomplishment, university and statewide leadership experience and an enthusiasm for the local university community.
“A lot of things just came together to make this the right time for me to take this step,” said Wheeler, who’s currently the chair of the SDSU University Senate and the chair of the SDSU Faculty. He also is chair of the SDSU Department of Philosophy, where he has pursued research and teaching since 1995.
He joins SDSU-IV at a time when Dean Gregorio M. Ponce and SDSU President Adela de la Torre have stated their intent to see the campus enrollment double to more than 2,000 students over the next few years.
“Since I’ve known Mark, he’s offered to do anything he can to help us achieve our goals for the campus,” Ponce said. “He’s enthusiastic about what we are doing. And, he has the experience and connections in the university and the CSU system to help us build this local university to meet the Imperial Valley’s higher education needs.”
Wheeler said he has been interested in SDSU-IV since he learned about the campus around 1996 through his work with the University Senate.
“When I first came out here,” Wheeler said, “I loved this campus. I really liked the community here.”
Even as he prepares for his new position, he has worked to ensure SDSU-IV is recognized and fully integrated in SDSU governance.
In March, for the first time in the university’s history, Wheeler convened a University Senate meeting at the Imperial Valley campus, with other members of the university’s governing body joining through Zoom. And he put into motion a plan to include SDSU-IV as one of the regular sites for the University Senate’s meetings in future years.
Wheeler said his enthusiasm for the future of SDSU-IV has grown under the leadership of de la Torre and Ponce. At the same time, he said, he had completed several major goals that made the timing right for
him to seek the associate dean’s position.
“It was an alignment of the stars,” he said.
Wheeler’s book, “Being Measured: Truth and Falsehood in Aristotle’s Metaphysics” was recently published by SUNY Press. The book is based on about 25 years of research and writing, he said.
Wheeler holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Rochester, in Rochester, N.Y. He joined the philosophy faculty at SDSU as an assistant professor in 1995. In August 2019, he was made a full professor.
In addition to being chair of the Department of Philosophy at SDSU, he is director of the Institute of Ethics and Public Affairs at SDSU and has
held numerous other leadership roles in the university.
Wheeler has published numerous articles and book chapters and received many accolades and honors, including the Most Influential Faculty Award for the SDSU Department of Philosophy in 2018-19.
Following the completion of his current term as chair of the University Senate, and after decades of campus leadership in collaboration with the university administration, including years of work with the statewide CSU Academic Senate, Wheeler said the time had come to move on.
“I’ve pretty much exhausted my leadership opportunities as a good academic citizen,” he
said.
He said he is enthusiastic about joining the Imperial Valley campus team and the chance to work with Ponce.
“I see how he comports himself as a diplomatic leader,” Wheeler said. “He’s just a wonderful human being.”
Wheeler and his wife, Alexandra Hart, a noted metalsmith and jeweler, are moving to the Valley and plan to immerse themselves in the campus and broader community.
“It is the perfect time for me to make a change, to bring together what I enjoy and what I am good at,” he said. “I like to be a leader with people I am serving.”