What makes you qualified for this position?
I’ve been a student-affairs professional for 32 years. I started as an area coordinator and then worked for the University of Massachusetts for 13 [years] before coming to Amherst. In April, this will be my 20th year at [Amherst] College. I am the Senior Associate Dean in the office. So, when Dean Lieber is out of town, as he is this week, I am the primary person in the office. My 32 years coupled with the leadership that I currently display in the office qualifies me to serve as Dean of Students.
Why did you choose the post-secondary education field?
My father died in my junior year of high school and my mother died my first year of college. It was a pivotal time in my life. There were people in the Dean of Students office at the University [of Massachusetts] who helped me so much … giving me a place to go during Thanksgiving, helping me to identify my [resources]. I really want to give back to students in that way.
Each and every day, I walk away feeling that I’ve done something important. One of the things that I did that will never leave my heart [happened] … when [a former student] committed suicide. I went to the funeral home with her family … and helped them pick out a coffin. Nothing is more important than that. I don’t think I would be sitting here today if it had not been for the people in the Dean of Students office who helped me, and I serve in this position as a way of giving back.
What aspirations did you enter this field with? Do you feel that you have accomplished them?
I exceeded my aspirations. I never thought that I would be sitting in the most prestigious institution in the country as Senior Associate Dean … Each day I receive aspirations from the students that I work with and the alums that I work with.
I find this work to be incredibly important. I have one of those jobs in which people come to me and ask me to help them in some sort of way. I’m a class dean. I advise student groups. I worked with students to create the Multicultural Resource Center. I coordinate the peer-tutoring program. I’m a chair of the Martin Luther King Committee. I work with students to sponsor the annual Kwanzaa celebration. I work with the Parent and Alumni Office to support the Wade Fellow Program (alums who return to campus and assist the office in mentoring students). There are so many ways [through which] I work with students, faculty and staff. It’s an incredibly rewarding experience.
What makes you different as the only candidate from Amherst College? Do you feel that this background makes you more qualified to be Dean of Students?
I would like to think [that it makes me different], but I want a fair shot at it.
I would hope that the community and the people who make the decision will look at me as a viable candidate and that I won’t necessarily get any extra points for being an inside candidate, but more importantly, not get any points taken away for being an inside candidate. It has been an amazing experience working for Dean Lieber, but I have my own ideas in terms of what I would do differently, what I would change. I think I know where the real strengths are … within the institution and office. Because I have a familiarity with the people who are powerbrokers of the institute [and] with programs, … [I can] make some institutional changes that others would take a little bit more time to identify.
Why do you want to be Dean of Students? Is there a specific experience that greatly impacted your decision to apply for this position?
I want to formalize a position that I feel that I already have. I served as the active Dean of Students for a semester when Dean Lieber was on sabbatical. Since he is moving on, I would like to be in that position, not only because I have my own ideas in terms of how to help the office continue working well, but because I have my own ideas in terms of giving the office some stability as well. In addition, over the years, we’ve lost many of our staff members, … [including] Dean Onawumi [and] Dean Moss. We’ve had a lot of shifting. And with the economic challenges that the campus is facing, I feel that as an inside candidate who knows the programs that we facilitate and as someone who knows the people in the office, I think that I can help bring stability … I also think that I can work with the staff on issues of morale.
What goals would you have as Dean of Students? What would you hope to accomplish in your new position?
I would hope to continue making the office accessible to students. I hope to more deliberately foster the intellectual curiosity of students with the faculty. I think I would want to work with the staff in the office to continue to develop programs that would meet the needs of students. I would like to work with parents and alumni to create a better partnership for programs for the students at the College.
I am currently the class dean for the sophomores. I was dean for the class of ’09. They were my first graduating class. I noticed as class dean, naturally, that they go through a lot of anxiety. Many have a thesis, they’re looking for jobs, they don’t know if they’re going home or something else, they’re saying goodbye to friends they’ve gotten to know for the past four years … [There is] a lot of transitioning. I would try to create a transitional program for seniors. That would start in the fall of senior year and maybe be a life series program. [The] Career Center could do some of that … We could work with other agencies, like the counseling center and Valentine, and make senior year less stressful, less anxious.
The class only gets together twice — once during commencement and again during graduation. I would like them to meet more often than that. How about one semester where they come together in a central location, like a mixer? Why do they have to wait until graduation to re-connect as a class? Who made that rule? We can share experiences along the way — what it was like going abroad, what it was like seeking an internship.
Students here go away to the coolest places, like France [and] certain places in Africa. This may already exist, but I think it would be nice to have a meeting, maybe every Wednesday at nine in the Friedmann Room, to talk about their experiences, bring back souvenirs and pictures. The idea is that a small number of people who visited x country last year can come back, and we can live vicariously through their experiences.