For the first time in years, the University of Dallas entered the fall semester without a dean of students. Following Dr. Greg Roper’s shift to dean of Constantin College of Liberal Arts over the summer, the responsibilities of his former position were divided between existing leaders in the Office of Student Life.
Rather than appointing a new dean of students, the university divided much of the position’s responsibilities between Moey Brown, executive director of student engagement, and Sarah Baker, executive director of campus life. Roper continues to provide oversight in his new position as dean of Constantin. Under the new structure of administration, Brown and Baker have divided the responsibilities of the former dean of students almost equally. Baker currently oversees the Counseling Center, as well as housing and Residence Life, while Brown oversees Student Life operations, along with the Health Clinic and student activities.
Although the responsibilities of the dean remain, the dean of students position itself does not. “The dean of students position no longer exists,” Brown said. “It was basically assumed by the two of us, and then Dr. Roper still has some oversight and supervisory capacity to it as he took on the role of dean of Constantin.” Brown said she believes dividing the responsibilities between two administrators has been effective, particularly because she and Baker have worked together for nearly seven years. For larger decisions, she said, the two continue to work together rather than making the decisions individually.
“There’s always another person to kind of go to, to feed off of your ideas and your decisions to see what they think,” Brown said. “So it’s a really good sounding board, so you’re not making decisions in an echo chamber.”
Taking on the additional responsibilities has also required some redistribution within the Office of Student Life. Brown said she and Baker continue to oversee much of their previous work, while other responsibilities have been passed to staff members in areas including Student Life operations, Residence Life and housing.
Brown acknowledged that her new role comes with additional meetings and greater involvement in higher-level decisions. However, she said redistributing some of her previous duties has kept the workload manageable.
“I think it was only possible to make this move because of the staff we had in place,” Brown said.
For Roper, the summer brought a different kind of transition. Before his time in Student Life, Roper served on the academic side of the university, including as chair of the English Department. He described becoming dean of Constantin as both a return to familiar territory and the beginning of a substantially different job.
“The summer was a long and steep learning curve,” Roper said. “But it was great to be back with department chairs and people like that, and be thinking about the academic side of UD again.”
Where Roper’s former position centered on areas such as Residence Life, student engagement, the Counseling Center and the Health Clinic, his new responsibilities center on the university’s academic departments. Roper said his role is primarily to support those departments, along with some of UD’s defining academic programs.
“My job is really to support the academic departments, support the Core, support the Rome program and support the academic departments in really achieving academic excellence,” Roper said.
Roper said he has several ideas for his time as dean but is not yet ready to announce specific plans. For now, he said his primary goal is to provide departments with the resources and support they need to continue their work.
Drawing on his experience as an English department chair, Roper described his new position as being the “chair of the chairs.” Rather than viewing the deanship simply as a position above the faculty, he said he sees his responsibility as serving them.
“I feel like I’m a member of all the departments now,” Roper said. “It’s my job to be a servant.”
That approach, Roper said, extends his previous work with students into his new role supporting the faculty who teach them. Referencing Pope Gregory the Great’s description of himself as the “servant of the servants of God,” Roper offered his own description of the position.
“I feel like I’m the servant of the servants of students,” Roper said. “And that’s the way I like to think of it.”