UW-Madison Interim Dean of Students Lori Berquam will keep her job, Chancellor John Wiley and Provost Patrick Farrrell announced Thursday.
The pair confirmed Berquam as the best choice for UW-Madison's open dean of students position, after the university formed the initial search-and-screen committee a year ago Wednesday.
Berquam replaces Luoluo Hong, UW-Madison's former dean of students who resigned in Summer 2005.
""I'm so excited!"" Berquam said Thursday afternoon. ""This job is one that I will take very much to heart.""
Farrell praised Berquam's ""breadth"" and ability to multitask, describing the Dean of Students job as one that requires ""someone who's able to fill the role of someone who's a real advocate for students and has a real understanding of how the university works, as well as someone who can speak clearly and plainly to faculty and staff across the campus, as well as someone who can manage an office and the people and the budgets that come with that office.""
He stressed the interpersonal contact with students necessary to fulfill the job successfully and emphasized Berquam's ability to establish those kinds of relationships.
""We rely on the Dean of Students to be the main-point person for a lot of issues that arise with respect to students and count on them to contact me or Chancellor Wiley when those become issues that need more campus-wide attention,"" Farrell said. ""It's a pretty close working relationship.""
Berquam said she plans to continue open question-and-answer forums like the one she held at her meet-and-greet finalist forum Jan. 31.
""There were issues brought up that I think are important to our students of color and issues of advising or recruitment, or issues of safety—a young woman was hit by a car this week, in the crosswalk,"" she said. ""Most important for our students is to know ... that if there are issues or concerns that they have, the Office of the dean of students is a place that they can come.""
According to Berquam, her definition of the Dean of Students job is one that involves establishing contact with students, both in times of major crises and minor concerns.
One of her new initiatives, Berquam said, will be to have students who are dropping out of UW-Madison altogether to sit down and discuss why, in hopes of alleviating the problem and offering alternatives to leaving.
Berquam has held previous administrative positions as associate and assistant dean of students and assistant director of housing.
The other finalists for the position were Timothy Gordon of Northwestern University and Brian Rose of Rutgers University.
