After a dozen years working to improve financial services and veterans affairs at the University, a former housing director stepped into a new role last week focusing on student life. As assistant vice president for Student and Academic Support Services, Andrew Sonn will oversee parent services, international initiatives, veterans affairs and other activities to assess student needs and help shape their paths to success. He will replace outgoing associate vice president and chief administrative officer Fred Siegel, who announced his departure in early November after two decades at GW.
“I couldn’t think of working anywhere else,” Sonn said. “It’s a really exciting work environment to be in.” Sonn joined the University in 1999 as director of housing services, where he worked to increase the web presence of the department by automating the housing selection process and helped to increase residence capacity.
He moved to the role of director of customer service initiatives in SASS in 2004. For six years, he worked as part of the team that created Colonial Central, a department that operates financial services including GWorld, as a way to streamline students’ financial business. He earned the title of executive director of SASS administration last year.
“Working in student life keeps me young and keeps me current. You have to be current,” Sonn said.
About three years ago, Sonn helped create GW Student Veteran Services, which provides academic and financial assistance to student veterans. He said he is proud of the program’s expansion to include about 730 veterans this year, adding that the level of financial aid provided by GW is among the best in the country. The Military Times recognized the University as the No. 16 most military-friendly four-year college in November.
“It is important to support academically the individuals who have given to our country,” he said.
Director of Government Relations Kent Springfield, who worked with Sonn to create veteran services, said Sonn has built a familiarity with GW’s services sector through his involvement in “so many different aspects of what SASS has done.”
“He has the view of how all the pieces fit together,” Springfield said. “At a big organization like this, you have to have a certain level of trust with people, and he’s built that up over a long time.” In his elevated role, Sonn hopes to widen the number of students benefiting from veterans services and improve parent communications. But his main goal, he said, will be to ensure that services adapt as student life changes with technology.
“Every year I’ve been at GW, the student has constantly been getting better,” he said. “It’s nice to have an upward pattern, and I think they’ll continue to do so in the future.”
Sonn, who received a doctorate in education from the Graduate School of Education and Human Development, is also a visiting professor at the school. He will teach a course on the history of higher education this spring.
Robert Chernak, who oversees the department as senior vice provost and senior vice president for SASS, said Sonn earned his promotion “based upon past efforts and achievements.” “I have every confidence in his new assignment that Sonn will contribute in even greater ways going forward to enhance University services we provide to our students,” Chernak said.
