UTSA Veteran Employee Recognized for 25 Years of Service

Ron Hedrick, special assistant to the vice president for student affairs, was recently honored with an award for his 25 years of dedicated service to the UTSA community. At the university, Hedrick has learned to wear many different hats over the years.

His first day on the job in 1975, he started out in the Koger Center. The second day, Ron Hedrick moved to the 1604 Campus and it's been a career of promotions ever since.

Hedrick was originally hired in July of 1975 to serve as the first director of counseling services after working in a similar position at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. At the time, UTSA was in its fledgling stage and Hedrick was the only staff member available to provide counseling assistance to students needing the service.

"It was scary, but exciting at the same time. I basicly had to create mental health support services for the students," said Hedrick.

Hedrick continued to work alone for the first year and then was able to hire two other staff members in 1976 when UTSA had 7500 students enrolled. Three years later the counseling center received accreditation and Hedrick went on to work 12 more years as the center's director.

After 16 years as Counseling Center director, Hedrick was promoted to acting assistant vice president for student development following a reorganization period. He took on more responsibility in the position becoming administratively responsible for eight student development units.

The university looked to reorganize again, and Hedrick was named the assistant vice president for student development, where he worked for six years.

Hedrick current position is special assistant to the vice president for student affairs where he works on special projects for the vice president's office.