Billy Weitzer, Senior Associate Provost and Dean of Continuing Studies, is one of the two finalists for Wesleyan’s next Dean of the College. The decision-making process will continue until early April, and whichever candidate is selected will begin on July 1.
EO: What does a Provost do?
BW: The Vice President of Academic Affairs and Provost, that’s one person who is Judith Brown. And as such she is the chief academic officer of the institution, so everything to do with academics flows up to her. As the Senior Associate Provost I have a portfolio of offices and assignments in support of the academic mission.
EO: It says in the job description that “the Dean of the College will oversee a newly-reorganized office that better supports the Dean’s strategic role within the University.” What do you take that “strategic role” to mean?
BW: The Dean is the connective tissue for the University. One of those connections has to be between students and the rest of the institution, but there are many other ways the Dean plays that connection. I don’t say that the Dean is the voice of the students because I don’t think the Dean can speak for the students. The Dean’s job is to make sure that student voices are heard, and there’s no single way for that to happen. A prerequisite to the Dean helping student voices be heard is the Dean being a good listener and having good mechanisms for understanding what’s going on with students.
EO: Why do you want to be Dean of the College?
BW: I want to be Dean of the College on an institutional level and on a personal level. Institutionally, this is the time for campus life, more so than any previous time in my fifteen years here. From the new strategic plan, the types of building that are going up from the addition to the Freeman Athletic Center to the establishment of the Fauver residences, to establishing an information common in the library, to the crown of it—establishing the new University Center—we’re going to finally have places where both planned and spontaneous activities and interactions can go on. Personally, I love Wesleyan. I feel that I have a lot to offer and that this is a better role for me, because I’ve been doing lots of things, but lots of little things. This is a defined leadership role, and I really like that.
EO: What would be the first thing you would change, if you got the position?
BW: I would change our communication network. I would build on what’s worked, and I would find new and better ways to communicate. That means not only me listening to students but students listening to me, and hopefully we can exercise some empathy and build some trust. Specifically, I would address the multicultural affairs issue. The new Dean of the College will be delivered a report from the task force that Dean Patton is creating.
EO: How would you have handled the situation with gender-neutral housing last summer differently than Patton did?
BW: I would have had to roll back the clock and say, “How did this happen?” How could it have been August before some people realized that what was happening wasn’t what they could have agreed to. Once it got to August I think you were in a no-win situation. The only way it could be handled differently and successfully is for there to have been better lines of communication. What I mean is really talking to people, finding out where you agree and also being honest about where you disagree, and finishing a conversation with real clarity about what is the next step.
EO: What has your biggest accomplishment here been?
BW: I don’t have one single thing that I’m most proud of, other than the fact that if you go and ask people they’ll say, “Billy Weitzer gets things done.” Most recently, I’ve worked with the registrar to create the new drop-add system, which I think has been a great success. I chaired the committee that oversaw the design of the addition to the Freeman Athletic Center. I’m very proud of what I’m doing right now with the Dean’s office, which is pulling together student academic resources. That consists of things in the Dean’s Office like the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program, and the tutoring program, but also pulls together alliances, like Academic Affairs and the Math Workshop and the Writing Workshop. The whole concept is that if a student asks something but they ask at the wrong place, how quickly can we get that student to the right place? We’ve got to understand the relationship of all our services so that we really can care for the needs of students. We also want to build on it, so that it’s not just for students having “problems,” it’s the whole enrichment idea.
EO: What can you bring to the job that Freddye Hill was unable to?
BW: I have a lot of respect for Freddye, and I don’t want to say something directly or indirectly that is disrespectful for her. I do think that our reorganization came about because we saw that Freddye was stretched too thin, so we’re trying to build a structure so the dean can be free to keep his or her eye on the longer term strategic goals. I would try to gain a balance between paying attention to the individual student, and moving towards the goal of a more vibrant campus community. I am a vision person, a strategic person. I’m very happy acting at the very tactical level—I’ll get down and I’ll lick envelopes with students if it’s necessary to get something out. What I would bring to the job is making sure that our efforts are taking us towards the kind of Wesleyan that we want to be.
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