Rice University’s Office of Admission is bolstering its recruitment and admission efforts by hiring Charles Murphy as executive director of admission. He will start Aug. 1.
“We are delighted to have Charles Murphy join our team as executive director to lead the Office of Admission,” said Yvonne Romero da Silva, vice president for enrollment. “He is widely recognized as a strong leader in the enrollment profession and brings many years of experience to Rice with particular expertise in recruitment, data analytics and staff management.”
Murphy will serve as a key member of the leadership team for the division to achieve Rice’s enrollment goals. He will lead a group of more than 20 admission professionals, manage an operating budget of $1.2 million, direct the evaluation and selection processes together with the admission operations team, liaise with numerous constituents across the university to collaborate on opportunities to promote and articulate the benefits of a Rice undergraduate education and ensure a smooth transition of the admitted class.
“Rice and its admission team possess a sterling reputation, and I look forward to enhancing the great work already being performed,” Murphy said. “Upon my first visit to campus, I could sense a feeling of community, and I’m looking forward to sharing that experience with potential students. I will work to build upon the university’s personalized education and further elevate the student-centered approach in the admission process.”
Prior to joining Rice, Murphy served as director of admissions at the University of Florida, where he provided overall leadership and oversight to more than 60 employees, oversaw admissions operations which processed more than 110,000 applications annually and led recruitment efforts for a freshman class of 7,000 enrolling students.
Adding to his list of accomplishments, Murphy worked more than a decade in various roles in the office of undergraduate admissions at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, departing as the senior associate director for recruitment and outreach, as well as working at the University of Michigan and Arcadia University.
A search committee of faculty and staff members selected Murphy after a nationwide search was launched in the spring by WittKieffer, one of the country’s premier executive search firms. The search committee was chaired by Neha Agrawal, executive director of enrollment marketing and communication.
Murphy earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology with a minor in business administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a master’s degree in higher education from the University of Michigan.