Three members of Quinnipiac’s senior management team will be leaving the university, according to an email from President Judy Olian to faculty and staff Wednesday, April 17.
Vice President for Public Affairs Lynn Bushnell, Vice President for Development and Alumni Affairs Don Weinbach and Vice President for Admission and Financial Aid Greg Eichhorn announced their intentions to depart from the university following Executive Vice President and Provost Mark Thompson’s decision to leave to become President of Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston.
Bushnell is retiring June 2019 after 25 years with the university.
Weinbach is retiring June 2020 after 24 years at the university.
Eichhorn is leaving June 2019 as well, but with intentions to continue admission efforts for the entering class of 2019/20.
“In the coming weeks and months, we will have many opportunities to express our gratitude to Mark, Don, Lynn and Greg for their dedicated service and impact at Quinnipiac,” the email read. “They have meant so much to our institution, and to our students, staff and faculty. We wish them the very best in the next chapters of their lives.”
President Olian came into her position in July 2018. Since then four total members of the senior leadership team have announced their leave from the university, but Bushnell said this is not surprising.
“I don’t know that it’s a total coincidence,” Bushnell said. “I think that people always expect a lot of turnover when a new president comes in. You know he or she always wants their own people in place. My good fortune is that it coincided with my own plan or that my own plan coincided with her arrival.”
While some of the other departures may have come as a surprise to Quinnipiac community members, retirement has always been in the plans for Bushnell.
“My plan has always been to retire this June,” Bushnell said. “My husband and I, when we first learned when John Lahey was intending to retire, I made the decision that I would see him out and see the new person in for a year and assist in that transition and then I would ‘vamos.’”
In her 25 years with the school, Bushnell has been accredited with advancing the university’s national visibility and overseeing the growth of key units of the school including the Quinnipiac Poll, amongst many other things. Reflecting on her time here, it felt only fitting to see out longtime President Lahey and welcome in President Judy Olian to Quinnipiac and her position.
“I think I’ve done a good job with that [the transition] and get President Olian inaugurated and get through all of the final commencements cause it’s such a crazy season,” Bushnell said. “Then I’ll go off into the sunset at the end of June.”
Before she can go off on her fairytale ending, Bushnell must see through one of her last major tasks – President Olian’s inauguration. Former President Lahey held the position for 31 years so for many, if not all of the administrators, this is the first inauguration they had to plan.
“I’ll feel better when we’re on the other side of the inauguration,” Bushnell said. “That’s a big deal and none of us have done one before cause John was here for so long.”
While Bushnell has spent a quarter of a century on campus, her Bobcat roots run deeper than administration.
“I love this place. I have three children, all three of them have attended at least part of their educational career here,” Bushnell said. “I have very fond memories, not just as an employee, but as a parent.”
With three weeks left of the semester, Bushnell is nostalgic wrapping up her time at Quinnipiac, but looking forward to retirement.
“I would like to travel a lot and I think I’ll probably move to Boston for a year,” Bushnell said. “I posted on Facebook today a memory that I had posted six years ago that ‘I will always be a bobcat.’ So, I will be.”