New Dean of Student Life Joe Tolliver is experiencing
his own SLU orientation and he’s sure he made the right choice.
“Why am I so certain? In part, it’s because I’ve
had a lot of experience being a dean at liberal arts colleges: Connecticut,
Skidmore and Haverford have been my homes over the past 20 years,” he
says. “So I’ve had experience getting to know institutional
culture, and I really like what I’ve learned about St. Lawrence.”
Another reason he’s so certain? Dean Tolliver is
a person who knows himself well. “I know my own values
fit well with St. Lawrence’s values. You’ll find
in me a person who values personal responsibility and integrity, creating
safe space for students to learn and grow, and creative space for staff
to help students in every way. I’ll work hard to get to
know as many students as I possibly can, and those I do know will understand
immediately that I care about you.”
Dean Tolliver arrived at St. Lawrence on July 1, 2006, and will lead
a team who work with students in such areas as co-curricular programming, leadership
development, career
services, health
and counseling, and safety. He
has special interests in diversity and what he describes as “micro-cultures”—groups
of students within the larger student body, and getting to know both
the overall campus scene as well as knowing individual students.
