The dean’s office: restructured
By Abby Peterson
News Reporter
The Office of the Dean of Students at the University of Wisconsin restructured this past fall to create an “on-call system” that provides better and more-efficient service to students.
The creation of Student Advocacy and Judicial Affairs is the department’s biggest alteration. The new office assigns generalist positions to assistant deans so they can provide direct services to students.
The staff of SAJA is composed of four assistant deans and one intern who are knowledgeable on a variety of issues, from sexual assault to student crisis loans. Previously, assistant deans specialized more and assumed a divisional leadership role rather than being accessible to any student on any issue.
Students can now walk into the dean’s office and see someone right away rather than having to call beforehand and wait several days to talk to an assistant dean.
“These changes matter because we can assist [students] right away rather than scheduling appointments,” said Lori Berquam, associate dean of students at UW.
Berquam, who is also head of the new office, is excited about the staff of SAJA. “It’s a great group of people who are really committed to students. When you talk about student advocacy, that is us.”
The bottom line for SAJA staffers is to be true student advocates who are consistently responsive to student needs.
“We wanted to be student-focused,” Berquam said. “That is what instituted the changes.”
The changes, brought about in large part by Dean of Students Luoluo Hong, were part of a larger effort to make the office a better-known part of the campus. Hong felt one of the biggest problems previous to the changes was that students were unaware of the direct assistance the dean’s office could provide.
“When I arrived last year, assistant deans were perceived to be part of the divisional leadership for DOS,” said Hong in a press release. “In fact, they were providing direct services to students. By defining SAJA as a separate department in its own right, DOS is able to highlight the unique and special work of the assistant deans.”
Hong hopes that the reorganization will eliminate any confusion about the role of assistant deans while it simultaneously makes them more accessible to the university community. However, although Dean Hong wants faculty and students to become more familiar with SAJA, she emphasized that the DOS is also heavily involved with a number of other campus organizations and services.
“While the advocacy and adjudication functions fulfilled by SAJA staff are important services we provide for students,” Hong said, “I don’t want people to forget that DOS also supports diversity education and multicultural programs, international student services, disability affairs, student organization services and the LGBTQ student support services.”
