On January 5, 2026, Martha Wygmans started her journey as the new Vice President of Student Affairs here at Stockton. Given her new status at the university, The Argo reporter, Conor Wasneuski interviewed her on Friday, February 20 to understand her future visions for the university and what she hopes she could bring to Stockton.

The interview covered topics like her experience in higher education, what programs and initiatives she hopes to start and how she found herself as the right candidate for VPSA. 

Finding Stockton as “the one”

Dr. Wygmans replied that she was searching for universities that had a “good reputation for their academics” while also looking for universities that had an active student body. Recounting how she was given the opportunity to have a student forum, “You wouldn’t believe it. Twenty to twenty-five students showed up, and these were the kinds of questions where they followed up. It was amazing, just amazing.”

She compared this to a larger university like Penn State where “not a single student showed up.” Eventually, after looking at all her options she settled on Stockton saying, “It’s about what can I bring to that university and what that university gives to their students.”

Professional Background

Having years of higher education experience working as the VP for Student Success and Campus Life at Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania and as the Executive Director of Student Services at Binghamton University. She talked about how she appreciates Stockton for being both focused on the student experience and academics. She claims that her goal is to “work on the student experience to make sure students are getting what they need to be successful.”

At Commonwealth, Wygmans helped create “Student Success Centers”, a collaborative effort between academic affairs, student affairs, and enrollment management, where these centers had services and resources packaged together and directed for student success. She claims that Stockton has “these things spread out all over the place” and hopes to bring them together for students to utilize. Recalling that in the first year the centers were implemented at Commonwealth, the university saw a 1% increase in retention. 

Upcoming Plans

Other initiatives that Wygmans plans on using is the “Listening Lounge”, where students can come to an event hosted by Student Affairs and have a conversation. These are typically hosted once a month and are listed on OspreyHub. Along with Listening Lounges, Wygmans hopes to move the Student Affairs office closer to students, “I really want to put myself somewhere where the students are at, where I’m more easily accessible and able to get an idea of what’s going on with the student body.”

In addition, Wygmans looks to figure out “how academic and student affairs support each other in a way that will have a positive impact for the student experience.” Referencing how the living and learning communities connect Residential Life with academics, she wants to expand those programs because “initiatives like that sort of balance a student’s life cycle.”

She claims that “Faculty want you to come to every opportunity and every program we offer…. And then students end up feeling overwhelmed and burnt out,” an answer she believes may remedy student burn out is working on living and learning communities. 

Overall, Wygmans hopes to interact more with the student body and receive more feedback from students. She mentioned looking into was creating QR codes to voice immediate thoughts and opinions in the future. Where a student who had an idea, like where they think a picnic table or volleyball court should be could scan a QR code and send their thoughts to Student Affairs. “[We are] trying to find ways to really hear what students want and what they’re dealing with.”

Advice

Lastly, Wygmans gave advice to students, “Ask more questions and be more inquisitive.” Recalling how her daughter once went to a symposium with a friend, the symposium was about Russia and her degree was Communications. She enjoyed the meeting so much that she went up and asked questions afterwards to one of the speakers. She ended up studying abroad and went to Russia for a semester. “Go to things that you have no interest in just to see if they’re interesting.”

More information regarding future listening lounges can be found here.