New dean to focus on off-campus life

By Genna Tan

Off-campus students will have a new resource in the Office of Student Life with this fall's introduction of a dean for off-campus student life.

The position has been filled by Kimberly Gilkey, who is currently the area coordinator of the student neighborhood at the University of Dayton in Dayton, Ohio.

"Our office has always been attentive to the needs of the community off campus," said Associate Dean for Student Life Matthew Duncan.

"The challenge that we've had is that we've never been able to put as much of an effort and focus into responding to those needs as this position will allow it to."

The new dean for off-campus student life will act as "an advocate for students and their experience off campus."

Gilkey will also be a source of advice for issues associated with off-campus life. She will assist students should problems involving housing arrangements, roommates, neighbors, landlords or rent arise, Duncan said.

"I'm just bringing some experience on how to build coalitions," said Gilkey.

She added, "I hope to gather some of the stakeholders and the students together to try and build a stronger community in the neighborhood."

Gilkey's position will add a new element of administrative involvement with student life, as Dean of Students and Vice Provost for Student Life Jeanne Rosenberger deals mainly with on-campus issues.

The new dean will focus on the enforcement of the student code of conduct off campus, rather than having to divide her time between both on-campus and off-campus issues.

According to Duncan, the Office of Student Life can take disciplinary action when students violate the code of conduct off campus, and the new dean will enforce this policy.

Most of the violations that occur off campus are related to alcohol use, Duncan said.

"We do and have responded to conduct code violations off campus," said Duncan. "The primary way we're notified of that is through the Santa Clara Police Department."

Campus Safety Services does not have any authority off campus, and the first responder for off-campus issues is the Santa Clara Police Department.

Neighbors who live in the area around campus regularly cite off-campus parties as being disruptive and dangerous, according to Duncan.

Duncan and other representatives from the Office of Student Life have met with neighbors on multiple occasions through the Neighborhood University Relations Committee.

Duncan added that the new dean will have "the full range of sanctioning authority," which is outlined by the university's judicial system in the student conduct code.

The efforts of the dean for off-campus student life will mainly be focused on students who live in the off-campus areas near the university.

Duncan said he hopes that the dean's efforts will be extended to commuter students as the position develops.

"The main focus of this position is to respond to those that are immediately adjacent to the university," said Duncan.

"But as this position grows over time, I could certainly envision the services that this person provides expanding to the commuter students who live more than a walking distance away from the campus," added Duncan.

The search for someone to fill this new position started in March of this year, and after a great amount of consideration, Gilkey was selected from the "strong candidate pool."

According to Duncan, Gilkey has had valuable experience with residence life issues on and off campus at the University of Dayton, and she "brings a lot of creative ideas and energy" to the table.

Although there will be no revisions to the current student code of conduct, the implementation of the new position will change how the code is enforced.

"I think that at end of the day, this is truly better for students," said Duncan. "It's someone that can be a lead person that students can come to for the issues that arise off campus."

Contact Genna Tan at (408) 554-4546 or gbtan@scu.edu