Acting dean of students to continue role for upcoming academic year
Augustana’s Title IX coordinator and associate dean of students will continue to serve as the acting dean of students for the upcoming academic year, with the estimated date of a permanent hire still uncertain.
The position has experienced turnover since former Dean of Students Mark Blackburn was approved for professional development leave in February 2023. Associate Vice Provost Checka Leinwall served as interim dean in Blackburn’s absence and continued in the position after Blackburn’s resignation on May 31, 2023.
This February, Beth Elam took up the role of acting dean of students, and she’s set to hold the position for the entirety of the 2024-2025 school year.
According to President Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, the university appointed a new acting dean this spring in part so Leinwall could return to her central role as associate vice provost.
“We were anticipating most of the year, but there were other things we needed her to be working on relative to this year’s enterprise goals and high impact practices,” Herseth Sandlin said.
Interim Provost Joel Johnson said Elam’s understanding of Student Affairs and her ability to lead new staff members led to the decision to place her in the acting dean of students role.
“The nice thing about Beth is she’s got so much experience here at Augustana in a lot of different roles, including being in that associate dean of students role, so it became kind of a natural move to put her in the acting dean of students position,” Johnson said.
The dean of students oversees Student Affairs and its constituent departments: the Dean of Students office, Housing and Residence Life, Student Engagement and Recreational Services.
“There’s this entire realm of [student’s] existence outside of the classroom, and a lot of that is under the purview of the dean of students,” Johnson said.
According to Johnson, the role of dean of students is very important to campus yet commonly under appreciated.
“There’s just so many different aspects under the dean of students, so it’s a big job,” Johnson said. “And it requires someone who is able to build teams, to work on challenges and to have good connections with the student body and administration and faculty.”
Elam said she has enjoyed the role so far and has seen Student Affairs through a new perspective.
“I think what has been fun or challenging has been to be able to see from a more strategic lens when I’m looking at Student Affairs, how we can kind of align Student Affairs with the university mission and vision,” Elam said.
The dean of students also serves as the faculty adviser to the Augustana Student Association. Elam said she has worked with ASA in the past on specific initiatives, usually relating to health and wellness, but is looking forward to being more involved with the organization.
“It has been fun to just be able to know what their initiatives are as a whole and then just be able to kind of help offer my guidance and advice,” Elam said.
Junior Annie Johnston, the 2024-2025 ASA president, said the dean plays a crucial role in ASA. According to Johnston, the dean attends ASA meetings, advocates for the organization, answers questions and provides information to the senate about ongoing matters with administration or issues past senates have faced.
“The dean is important for ASA because they are a crucial part of administration, but they’re also a crucial part of the student body, so they’re kind of like our bridge to administration,” Johnston said.
Additionally, Johnston said that while the dean turnover is not ideal, it is also not the worst scenario for ASA.
“It’s not a make or break thing for ASA,” Johnston said. “We’ll continue to survive.”
However, Johnston said she wishes the Dean of Students Office would be more transparent and visible on campus during this transition time.
“The deans that we have seen step up to fill those roles, like Checka and Beth, they’re doing a great job with what they have,” Johnston said. “They stepped up to the role, and they’re doing the best that they possibly can, and we appreciate that, but it would be great, as students, to kind of see more transparency from the office and to see more engagement with students.”
Looking ahead, the university plans to have a dean in place for the 2025-2026 school year. According to Herseth Sandlin, decisions about how to conduct the search will not take place until the middle of the academic year in order for the newer members of the Student Affairs team to acclimate.
“Things started to feel like they were firing on all cylinders, and we didn’t really want to disrupt that by going into a search, which can cause anxiety and uncertainty,” Herseth Sandlin said.
Johnson said deciding the next step in the hiring process will include questions such as will the university launch a full search, what that full search would look like, who should be on the search committee and what the goals and objectives for that search would be. Johnson said these decisions would likely be solidified in mid-winter, with a search set to occur in the spring of 2025 in preparation for the 2025-2026 academic year.
When the search begins, Johnston said she advocates for student voices to be involved in the hiring processes.
“I think that when we’re interviewing for the dean of students in particular, we need to have students on that committee, especially students who are to be working very closely with that individual for the next year and so on and so forth,” Johnston said.
According to Johnson, the hiring process for a dean of students typically involves some student consultation in some formal way.
“It’s important that a dean of students be able to interact effectively with students and the student body in general, and that is something we would be testing for,” Johnson said.
