Thursday, October 12, 2017
Dr. Eric Hilton is the University of Maryland Eastern Shore’s new admissions and recruitment director.
Hilton has nearly two decades of experience in higher education administration as a recruiter.
A native of Columbus, Ohio, Hilton earned his undergraduate, master’s and doctoral degrees from Ohio University in Athens, where he also played three years of Division 1 basketball for the Bobcats in the early 1980s.
As a senior, Hilton and his teammates won a heart-stopping first-round game in the 1983 NCAA basketball tournament, defeating Illinois State on a last-second buzzer-beater.
He is the first in his immediate family to earn a college degree, an accomplishment that he says inspires him in his work in the admissions and recruitment field.
“I know the value of getting a college education, and I want young people to have the same opportunities for success that I’ve had,” said Hilton, the father of a nine-year old daughter.
After completing his Ph.D. work in higher education administration in 1997, Hilton worked as a corporate recruiter for Lucent Technologies for three years before shifting into recruiting for colleges.
He has worked for Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J., Central State University in Ohio, Cheney University of Pennsylvania and The Ohio State University, where he crossed paths with the late astronaut and U.S. senator, John Glenn.
“He was so down-to-earth,” Hilton said. “He was so approachable. It was a memorable experience.”
Most recently, he was dean of enrollment services at Bucks County Community College in Newtown, Pa.
Hilton said UMES’ vacant leadership post appealed to him because he said he has “a passion for HBCUs. They have an important role in higher education and provide a critical pathway for students to get a college education.”
Hilton, whose first day was Sept. 18, said he quickly was impressed by “the people who dearly love this university. The history of this institution is intriguing, and I think that can be an easy selling point.”
One sales tool Hilton and his staff have at their disposal for the full 2017-18 recruiting cycle is the newly acquired Sprinter van that was retrofitted to serve as a high-tech mobile recruiting center. The vehicle, which debuted this past spring, was acquired with money donated in 2016 by Delmarva Power, an Exelon Company.
“It’s an impressive vehicle,” he said. “We’ve got to maximize it.”
That includes dispatching it to a broad spectrum of locations, guided by a carefully crafted schedule of community outreach and recruiting events across Delmarva and the mid-Atlantic region.
One such on-campus event he’s calling “Preview Day” is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 20. He’s hoping his new colleagues and current students will join in.
In his two decades as an admissions / recruitment administrator, Hilton said he’s “met some wonderful people. This job is all about people, and finding them the right fit for where they see their lives going.”
