A Kansas University communications professor and researcher will temporarily oversee the KU student affairs division.

Mary Lee Hummert will start in the position Aug. 1, the day after David Ambler retires after 25 years as KU’s vice chancellor for student affairs.

She will serve until KU officials find a replacement for Ambler, which Provost David Shulenburger said should take about a year. A national search is scheduled to begin this fall.

However, officials also are considering ways to restructure the student affairs division, which may mean altering or eliminating the vice chancellor position. Shulenburger called the upcoming academic year a “transition year.”

“We’ll still have a student affairs officer doing many of the same things,” Shulenburger said, but the name of the position may change.

Hummert has taught at KU since 1987. She is a graduate of Fontbonne College in St. Louis, University of Nebraska-Kearney and KU.

Her research focuses on communication and aging issues and is conducted at KU’s Gerontology Center. She received a Kemper Fellowship for Teaching Excellence in 2000.

Hummert was on the committee that helped form the KU Center for Research in the mid-1990s, and currently is serving on the committee considering ways to restructure the student affairs division.

The vice chancellor currently oversees KU’s unions, student health services, student housing and the Department of Student Life.

The Department of Student Life includes recreation services, Legal Services for Students, Hilltop Child Development Center, Services for Students with Disabilities, Career and Employment services, Counseling and Psychological services, Office of Multicultural Affairs, Student Development Center, Emily Taylor Women’s Resource Center, Student Organizations and Leadership and KU Info.