On Jan. 8, Quinnipiac University President Judy Olian announced in a press release the appointment of its new general council, Aaron C. Trump. Along with his appointment it was also announced he will serve on the university’s Management Committee.
“Aaron brings extensive legal and higher education experience to this critical role,” Olian wrote in the press release. “His broad expertise in the law across higher education and in the private sector will be tremendous assets to the Quinnipiac community.”
Trump began his journey to Quinnipiac back when he was an undergrad at Indiana University where he was pursuing a degree in psychology.
“I worked in student affairs,” Trump said. “So I had a master’s in higher education student affairs. So started out as an RA as a lot of people do when they get into that. And then worked my way through housing as a housing director and a residential college coordinator, and then went to law school.”
Trump stayed at Indiana after earning his Bachelor of Science degree to get a Master of Science in higher education and student affairs.
At Indiana, he has established a relationship with his mentor, Dave O’Guinn, who worked in housing at Quinnipiac for over 20 years.
“O’Guinn kind of got me to switch from student affairs to law school,” Trump said. “He worked at housing here at Quinnipiac 20 years ago, so it was already on my radar for quite a while.”
Once he made the switch to law school he enrolled in Washington University in St. Louis where he currently holds a Juris Doctor. It was at Wash U where he met his wife, who is originally from Connecticut.
After finishing his education, Trump joined Southern Indiana University in 2019, where he became the institution’s first general council.
“I was at the University of Southern Indiana as their vice president of government affairs and general counsel for six years,” Trump said. “Really enjoyed that work. Headed up that office as their first general counsel, and also handled all of the interactions between the university and elected officials in the state.”
But after six years with SIU, Trump and his wife decided to move closer to home, but only for the right opportunity.
“I knew we wanted to come to Connecticut, but we didn’t want to just move here for the sake of moving here,” Trump said. “We wanted to find the right place, and a university that I knew we’d both be happy at.”
Once the position of general council opened up at Quinnipiac it was a no brainer for Trump to make the move, both professionally and personally.
“It was exciting to find a place that I thought was a good professional step for me in growth, but also a place where I feel comfortable and thought I could contribute and hopefully help the institution to continue to move in a positive direction,” Trump said.
Trump also knew he’d be making the jump to a larger school, giving him more opportunities to be involved.
“It’s a more complex organization, the operating budget, the endowment, the medical school, the law school, some of the research programs,” Trump said. “There’s a lot going on here at Quinnipiac.”
Since starting at the end of January, Trump’s duties include dealing with all legal matters regarding the university and making sure the university is following all federal compliance issues.
“Essentially, I’m the chief legal officer for the university, and so I’ll deal with any legal matters that come to the institution,” Trump said. “Will come in through this office, at least to start. And then we’ll address, you know whose expertise, whose area will deal with it best.
“There’s obviously a lot of federal compliance issues going on right now with what’s changing with the administration, so a lot of them come through that office, and I’ll help to advise both the president, the Management Committee, Board of Trustees and other campus leadership on how best to address that.”
Trump is also serving on the Management Committee, working with other senior administrators to address larger issues that the school faces on a daily basis.
“The Management Committee is essentially the group of the most senior administrators on campus,” Trump said. “We meet at a minimum weekly, but we talk almost every day to collaborate on different issues that university is dealing with on a day to day basis, and either deal directly with the departments that are handling those matters and or advise President Olian out of the institution. Let’s address that from a more global strategic operations perspective.”
Despite only being on the job for a little less than a month, Trump already has some goals, both in the long term and short term.
“I think the broad goal is to just make sure I’m contributing value to an institution,” Trump said. “I bring a student affairs background and a decent amount of higher legal experience, and so I just hope, more than anything, I’m bringing value to the Management Committee, and value to Quinnipiac.
“As far as specific initiatives, I think we’re looking at how we can start to centralize federal compliance a little more out of this office to make sure everybody’s on the same page and ensuring the university is doing what’s best to protect the institution.”
