After almost a year of transition, the University of Wisconsin finally has an official dean of students in Luoluo Hong.
The search for a new dean started in January when former dean Alicia Chavez stepped down from the position to dedicate full-time work to her staff position as assistant professor in the Department of Educational Administration.
Hong, originally from Baltimore, Md., holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Amherst College, a master’s degree in public health from Yale and a doctorate in educational leadership and research from Louisiana State University.
For the last two years, Hong served as assistant vice president of student affairs and dean of students at Shepard College in West Virginia. Before that, she acted as director of wellness education and outreach services at LSU.
Hong is entering her position at a time when there are many student-life issues on the table.
One issue is the current drink-specials debate; drink specials were recently banned on weekends by State Street-area bar owners under pressure from the city of Madison and UW chancellor John Wiley.
Hong does not agree with this approach; she said there are better ways to decrease the amount of alcohol students drink other than forcing bars to do away with drink specials. She said she felt a better solution would be to work with the bars to see if other promotions could be worked out that would still allow students to have a good time but not drink as much.
The issue of student drinking in Madison is certainly not limited to the drink-specials problem and will be a continual hurdle for Hong.
However, Hong says she feels equipped to deal with the problem, since she was confronted with a similar scenario at LSU. She said she believes the drinking habits of Louisiana students are similar to the drinking habits of students on this campus. “[Students at LSU] also take pride in their drinking habits,” she explained.
The new dean also plans to work toward making the UW campus a more welcoming place for all students.
“There seems to be a positive point of view, and that’s a good start,” she said. “But sometimes a self-belief that is different from reality is very hard to change.”
UW sophomore Angie Richards, who met Hong recently, said she found her to be a genuinely nice person who will help the university environment.
“I only talked to her briefly, but I could tell right away that she was very nice and easygoing,” Richards said. “I think she will be great for this school.”
Hong said her first order of business will be to repair the reputation of the dean’s office, which was tarnished over the past several months by the lack of a permanent dean of students.
