Citing a wish to return to the faculty and a private lifestyle, UW-Madison Dean of Students Alicia Chavez announced Jan. 11 she will be resigning from her position at the end of the 2001-'02 school year to take a full-time teaching position at the university.
Chavez came to Madison from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, in July 2000.
\It was a real hard decision for me to leave the faculty,"" she said. ""I was asked to apply for this and talked into it kind of.""
There were many situations, like Sept. 11, that Chavez said she never expected to deal with as dean.
""I remember distinctly driving into campus that morning and hearing about it on the radio,"" she said. ""I remember stopping my car on the way here ... putting my head on the dashboard and thinking, 'Oh my gosh, I don't want to be Dean of Students today.' My first thought was how many of our students and faculty and staff are from that area and will have lost someone.""
But the events of Sept. 11 also brought some gratifying experiences for Chavez.
""After Sept. 11, four different faculty and staff walked into our office and asked me personally if there were any students who needed to be driven home that were from New York. They said, 'I have a car, I'll pay for everything. I'll take the time off. What do you need?'"" she said. ""That kind of thing is just astounding. And it's my privilege to see the best come out in people in times of crisis. That kept me going a lot during really rough times.""
While there are other jobs on campus with higher stress levels, like that of UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley or UW-Madison Police Chief Sue Riesling, for example, the position of the Dean of Students ""ranks up there,"" Chavez said. Calling the parents of students who had died was a difficult responsibility, for example, she added.
""It was one of my most humbling tasks to call parents and have to try to assist them and be with them when they tried to grieve from a loss you can never take in really,"" she said.
Paul Barrows, UW-Madison vice chancellor for student affairs and Chavez's supervisor, said he thought Chavez had the most difficult job in the university.
""The dean of students is always the person who is the front-line person who helps our students and their families go through some terrible situations,"" he said. ""You've got to have pretty special equipment to deal with those kinds of situations.""
The loss of anonymity was something Chavez said she did not enjoy during her time as dean.
""I can't even walk into a grocery store without someone saying 'Dean Chavez, why haven't you done anything about this?' and 'Why are there students throwing up in the hallways?'""
She said there was no way she could help someone understand this part of the job who had not been a public official.
""There's just no way to know how you're going to feel about that ... until you actually have to deal with it,"" she said.
The Dean of Students has a wide array of responsibilities related to student life issues and crisis management. People were often confused about the details of her position, she said.
""For some reason, people view my persona with a lot more power than I have,"" she said. ""I've got one of the smallest budgets in the university; I've got no academic authority.""
When Chavez took the job, she negotiated being part of the faculty at UW-Madison and will begin teaching full time this fall as an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Administration.
Barrows said he has begun the process of forming a search committee to find a new dean.
