The Dean of Students acts as the bridge between students, faculty and administration, providing educational and personal support to students, while at the same time holding them accountable.
In March, Cal State Monterey Bay (CSUMB) named Dr. Reuben Rodriguez as the new associate vice president for student affairs and dean of students.
“I always tell people the second half of my title is the most important: Dean of Students,” Rodriguez said recently in an interview with the Lutrinae. “I take very seriously that I have the opportunity to interact with all 7,000-plus students.”
Rodriguez frequently posts on My Raft and he is often seen strolling on campus or attending school-sponsored events/games. As he mentions, his tailored suits make him stick out in a crowd.
“I want to be accessible, I mean, I stand out because of how I dress when I’m at events,” explains Rodriguez. “I often have students say, ‘I don’t know who you are [but] you look important. Tell me who you are.’”
It’s by design according to him. As the Dean of Students, he’s insistent on students being able to spot and approach him whenever at an event. His personal philosophy is if students see him around, they’ll view him as that active participating member of the community he hopes to be.
“The feedback that I’ve received throughout the years, and what I hear from students all the time, [is that] they see me around, they see me at events, they know that I’m part of the administration, and all those things are very good indicators to students to know that I care about them.”
Before coming to CSUMB, Rodriguez worked as the Dean of Students at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) for 20 years, implementing several initiatives aiming to connect with students and their communities. His main goal then, and what he hopes to continue at CSUMB, is to support student activities and ideas.
“I want to promote what other students are doing, because it’s important.”
At VCU, he helped facilitate a program where first-year students pitched community initiatives to faculty and administrators. One of the initiatives he took pride in helping implement, involved providing students with the opportunity to work with local disabled senior citizens living in affordable communities by providing support and services.
“It just takes one student to have one really good idea, and I would be glad to try to make that happen.”
Rodriguez found his passion for leadership through the positive experience he had with the dean of students at his alma mater.
“When I was an undergraduate, [I] had somebody in that type of role as a dean of students who took the time to talk with students individually. He often would remember their faces and names after just one meeting and was [at] a lot of student events, and was very accessible to students,” Rodriguez shared. “I wanted to always emulate him and be in that type of role.”
With his role, also comes an obligation to be empathetic toward students when issues on campus require solutions, especially when students voice their criticisms of university policies and decisions. For Rodriguez, he believes he’s the best-qualified person to handle those conversations.
“I have a very high tolerance level because I understand that things can be tough for people, and some things are unexpected and some things are long term,” he said. “At heart, I try to be a problem solver. If people come up [to me] with a problem, then I try to solve it.”
With the Time, Place, and Manner (TPM) policy recently rolled out throughout the Cal State University (CSU) system placing restrictions and limitations on when and how students and faculty can demonstrate on campus, CSUMB’s addendum to the policy has Rodriguez as a member of the universities response team in charge of enforcing the policy, specifically as the Designated University Law Enforcement Liaison.
In the role, he acts as a mediator between students/demonstrators and law enforcement, ensuring and “promoting peaceful demonstrations.” Since the rollout, TPM has been criticized by student and faculty activists at CSUMB including the California Faculty Association.
The position holds utmost authority, dictating how individuals exercise their constitutionally protected rights of expression. Rodriguez is optimistic that those who demonstrate regardless of cause, are more than capable of following the controversial policy. According to him, his interactions so far within the community haven’t shown him otherwise.
“I think from our campus community, people understand that concept, but more importantly, we can do and have those discussions in a civil and respectful way. So if we have all that as groundwork, then the rest is just recalling those conversations.”
Students are their own best ambassadors according to Rodriguez, and he believes their opinions and beliefs matter for beneficial and mutual change. In his time at CSUMB, he wants to encourage students not only to seek him out, but other administrators and faculty members with questions and concerns regarding campus affairs.
“These are human beings too,” he said about administration. “You should be able to approach them whether it’s in class or out of class or at an event, and interact with them.”
If you want to take up the Dean’s offer, you can visit him at his office in Sand Hall (Building 8), or email him at [email protected].