Simon acknowledged that there will be a learning curve, but said she’s confident in Dawkins’ abilities.

“We’re making a recommendation for Dawkins based on his experience and what we believe he can bring as a (new) perspective for moving us forward,” she said at the University Council meeting last week.

Dawkins currently is the executive vice chancellor for administration at Rutgers in New Jersey. Before that, he worked at Duke University, Yale University and Stanford University.

The position has oversight of the entire physical being of MSU’s campus, including dorms, classroom buildings, roads, landscaping and underground steam tunnels. The budget for the department is about $400 million a year — a large chunk of the more than $1 billion annual budget of university.

Current vice president Ron Flinn has worked at MSU since 1957 and was part of the building process of about 75 percent of the university’s infrastructure.

“(Flinn) is an institution at MSU — he leaves very large shoes to fill,” Dawkins said. “I’m excited and humbled about the opportunity to come and try and bring some different perspectives to MSU.”

He said he’ll contact Flinn, who will work in an advisory role until December 2014, often to get perspective on the university. The first couple months in his new job will be spent meeting with people and getting to know MSU and East Lansing.

Bill Latta, assistant vice president for operations, was the chair of the search committee that recommended Dawkins and two other candidates in September.

It will take time for Dawkins and his staff to get used to each other — it will be different, Latta said.

“It will never be the same without Ron Flinn, but we are better, because he was here,” he said. “We’ll miss him because of all he’s contributed.”