Q: What does your job entail?
A: “I am the Vice President for Student Affairs at the University of Rhode Island, and I oversee a comprehensive student affairs division which includes… housing and residence life, dining, health services, counseling services, campus recreation, the Dean of Students office… and the Memorial Union. I have a pretty comprehensive area of a lot of the nonacademic pieces of the university.”
Q: What was your college experience like?
A: “My college experience was amazing. I am a graduate of Juniata College in central Pennsylvania, and I was heavily involved as a student athlete, I was a member of the swim team. I was also a resident assistant my junior and senior year. My degree is in political science and international relations business… and I certainly fell in love with the college campus and all that it has to offer, in terms of particularly developing student leaders. I decided to get my master’s degree in college student personnel administration, and my Ph.D. in higher education administration.”
Q: What advice do you have for the students of URI?
A: “Enjoy the experience, take risk, explore… I have failed far more than I have been successful… you’re going to make mistakes, and it’s devastating… you have to find strength in being disappointed. You never know where you’re going to be or what you’re going to do, what you have planned is probably not going to turn out, but you’re going to end up somewhere maybe better than you thought.”
Q: What is your favorite part about your job?
A: “My favorite part about my job is students. I do this everyday because someone believed in me when I was a student.”
Q: What’s your favorite place at URI?
A: “I love the quad, especially when everyone’s outside when the weather is nice. But I would probably have to say Butterfield Road. I love when you’re starting up at Hillside and you go down the street and all the way past Butterfield, past the Potter building, past Hope and Fascitelli, past all the residence halls. That is like our downtown, I love that street, especially at night when the weather’s nice.”
Q: What does the future of URI look like to you?
A: “The future is amazing for URI. A good sign of a healthy campus is construction cranes, because if we’re not building for our future, we’ve stalled… For me the fact that we are building a new 500 bed residence hall, we’re building a new college of engineering, we’re going to renovate the memorial union, we’re going to build a new health and counseling center, those projects are incredible exciting for me, because they are for you.”