Interim Dean of Student Affairs Jennifer Church has been promoted to the Dean of Student Affairs, Vice President of Enrollment Services Bill Elliot announced in an April 3 press conference. Church has assumed the position of interim dean since former dean Michael Murphy was promoted to Associate Vice President of the University last spring. According to an April 3 press release, Church came to the University in July 1995 as a residence life coordinator. Only a year later, she moved to the position of Assistant Dean of Student Affairs, gaining the title of Associate Dean of Student Affairs in 2000. Prior to coming to Carnegie Mellon, Church was the director of Housing and Student Activities at Yakima Valley Community College in Yakima, WA, and an admission counselor and sorority house director at the University of Iowa.

The Dean of Student Affairs is a position that is extremely broad, requiring a very special person to do the job. The Student Affairs website states, "the Office of the Dean of Student Affairs provides central guidance and direction of student services at Carnegie Mellon University... founded on a broad-based system focusing on the intellectual, occupational, emotional, spiritual, physical, and cultural growth and nurturing of students." The position effectively coordinates not only the academic life of a student but also the meta-curricular, or what goes on outside the classroom to form a student into a good member of society.

"It's the integration of extracurricular and meta-curricular activities to develop the whole person," said HSS faculty member Richard Tucker, who headed the dean search committee. "Education is a 24 hour a day job."

This precarious position affects Carnegie Mellon students every day. Departments that fall under Student Affairs include the Career Center, Counseling and Psychological Services, Health Services, Housing Services, International Education, the Office of the Assistant Dean, the Office of the Dean, the Office of First-Year Programs, the Student Life Office, Scholarship and Fellowships, and Student Activities.

In order to find the best applicant for the job, Elliot appointed Tucker as the head of a committee to make a recommendation for a new Dean of Student Affairs. The 18-person search committee represented faculty, staff, and students.

The process of picking a new dean was not an easy one. Murphy, who had been Dean of Student Affairs since 1990, was not easily replaceable. After working on the job description for the dean, announcements of the position were submitted through various avenues. Approximately 70 people applied for the job in the first round.

"I was overwhelmed by the number of people that want to work at CMU," said Tucker. "There's just something about this place."
 
In January, the 18 committee members narrowed the applicant pool to nine. The January meeting resulted in nine phone interviews with the remaining candidates. Four or five committee members were part of the interview process, and Tucker participated in all of the interviews. The calls were all roughly 45 minutes long and took place over an approximately two-week-long period.

After those interviews, the committee met again to cut down the group to three finalists who they would then recommend to Elliot. These finalists were Church, Charlene Cole-Newkirk, and Richard Ferraro. Ferraro currently serves as the Dean of Students at Bucknell University. Newkirk is currently Dean of the College of Southern Maryland (Prince Frederick Campus), and has served in various positions at other universities comparable to the Dean of Student Affairs position.

Each finalist was brought to campus before spring break for a visit. They met with numerous campus officials, the associate deans of each college, their peers in Student Affairs, and various groups of students. Student Affairs held open forums for students to come and meet the applicants, as well as provide feedback on the applicants. Feedback gathered from the meetings was sent to Elliot, who in turn made a recommendation from the committee to President Cohen.

In order for the new dean to be well equipped for the challenges that lie ahead, the committee was seeking someone that had seven very distinct qualities: leadership, vision, innovation, collaboration, accessibility, technological savvy, and an understanding or potential for learning the diverse and idiosyncratic nature of Carnegie Mellon. 

Elliot stated in the April 3 press release announcing the decision that "Jennifer [Church] has been a strong advocate, advisor and counselor for our students during the past 10 years and she's become a vital member of our university community. She has proven time and again that she possesses the necessary management skills, experience, vision and compassion to create and implement the types of programs that are essential to building and enhancing our campus community."

For more information about the search or the position, visit the Office of the Dean of Student Affairs' website.

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