What can you tell me about your education and professional experience?
I have a Bachelor’s degree and a Master’s degree from Colgate University. I am about to complete my Ph.D. in philosophy at the Claremont Graduate University.
After serving as a Resident Assistant and Graduate Hall Director at Colgate, I got my first professional job at Lehigh University. Then I moved to Bard College, where I was an Assistant and Associate Dean of Students. In 1995, I made the cross-country move to Claremont McKenna College, where I was an Associate Dean of Students, then the Dean of Students and now the Vice President for Student Affairs and the Dean of Students.
While I was at Colgate, I spent three summers living on the campus of Amherst College, working for a summer conference “pre-college” program. I lived in Morrow Hall most of those summers, but also in James one year. Most of the other Resident Assistants on this program were Amherst students; we ate in Valentine together, and I came to know the Pioneer Valley quite well... It was here that I developed a great admiration for Amherst.
Why did you enter the field of post-secondary education?
There are two main reasons why I’m interested in post-secondary [education]. First, my father was a professor, and I grew up on college campuses. I learned to swim, ride a bike, use a library and attend cultural and athletic events all on a college campus. Second, like a lot of people in my profession, there was a time when I realized that I had a skill set that was well-suited for helping college students. Whether it was through advising, counseling or working out other problems, working in student affairs was a natural for me.
What have been some of your accomplishments as Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students at CMC?
Gosh, it has been almost 15 years that I’ve been at CMC, and a lot of people in my department have worked very hard to build an outstanding Dean of Students Office... But I would say that I have encouraged everyone in my department to maintain excellent relationships with students, faculty, staff and alumni. A big part of working in the Dean of Students Office is maintaining great relationships. Our survey data indicates that we’re successful at having great working relationships with others, and — for the most part — our students are very, very happy with the experience they’re having at CMC.
Why do you want to come to Amherst College?
As I mentioned earlier, Amherst is a very special place for me. In addition to being an amazing intellectual community, where ideas are shared freely and discourse is a part of everyday life, there’s the commitment to the scholar-athlete model in athletics, the Consortium and the Pioneer Valley. A quick review of my résumé indicates that I’ve only worked for small colleges, and this is a deliberate choice on my part because I believe small colleges can do some very special things within their communities which may be lost at large universities.
What would you hope to achieve as Dean of Students at Amherst College?
I wouldn’t come to Amherst with a template to lay down over the College ... In fact, I would do just the opposite. I would make it a priority to meet with anyone who will sit with me, and I’ll listen carefully to what they have to say. I’d try to learn more about what makes Amherst special, and I would preserve that. And then I would apply my skills and experience to the issues that are facing the College and go to work on them. In the end, I’d like the experience of Amherst students to be as intellectually enlightening, supportive, safe and enjoyable as possible. But it would be premature to identify the specific steps to those overall goals.