Facing 'top-down' decisions, Dean Edleson decides to leave

Author: Ben Salkowe

Cook Commons Dean David Edleson will leave his position in June after eight years at the College. A founding staff member of the decentralized Cook Commons and a popular counselor for students inside and outside his community, Edleson said Monday that it was a growing number of decisions made by the senior administration without significant input from Commons Deans, which had "made the decision" for him in timing his leave.

"I think that with any new administration, there is a change in decision-making culture," said Edleson, referring to President of the College Ronald D. Liebowitz's administration, which entered office in the summer of 2004. "I feel the decision-making culture, at least in my division, has shifted from one that is collaborative to one that's very top-down. That's been noticeable over the last few years."

Edleson said that in the past he had requested an unpaid leave to pursue his outside work as a writer and academic, but because staff members are not eligible for professional leaves of absence, he had realized that he would likely leave the College in the next five years. A series of recent decisions, including the reorganization of the College's residential life staff, convinced him it was time to leave even before securing another job.

While Edleson said he supports, and was even involved in creating, the goals of the College's current strategic plan, he took issue with the way decisions were being made about how best to pursue those shared goals.

"It felt to me that we were told of what was going to happen and given an opportunity to react, but we weren't included in the big decisions," said Edleson about the residential life staff changes. "Instead of saying, 'Here's a problem, what are we all going to do about it?' it was like, 'Here are some decisions. Do you have problems with it?' And that felt disrespectful to me."

The residential life staff reorganization to take effect next year calls for halving the number of Commons Residential Advisors (CRAs) on campus, in order to fund a new First-Year Counselor program that would pay full-time students to take the place of junior counselors and fill some of the duties of CRAs. Traditionally, CRAs are recent Middlebury graduates who supervise the student residential life staff and function as assistants to the Deans in enforcing Commons policies and providing counseling. Edleson said he worried about the impact of having only one CRA per Commons, and was disturbed that Commons dean's concerns had not been addressed with the proposed reorganization.

"The residential life staff is the key piece that the Deans oversee, they're key to our ability to keep a safety net working in the dorms," said Edleson. "To have that dismantled without significant input from the deans was just deeply concerning, and made the decision for me in terms of timing when I would leave."

The final plan to reorganize the residential life staff was approved by Edleson's supervisor and Dean of the College Tim Spears, who said the issue was a difficult one.

"I made that decision, and the way that process worked was I started meeting with the faculty heads and the deans in the fall and we met for three meetings," said Spears.

"It was a difficult discussion in that I think the majority agreed in spirit with the sorts of goals we were trying to reach," said Spears. "But once you get down to making changes to a system people have come to rely on, that is hard. I think it would have been difficult to make a decision that everyone at the table absolutely agreed on."

Edleson also cited the Student Government Association's (SGA) recent proposal to allow rising seniors to switch Commons in room draw without penalty, as another issue on which Commons Deans concerns had gone unrecognized, even as the senior administration announced its intention to implement the goals of the SGA proposal.

"I know David's been surprised by some of the decisions that were made this year without his knowledge or involvement," said Cook Commons Tri-Chair Jessica Cox '07. "But I think some of this stuff that has happened has gone unnoticed because it has not affected the work David does with students at all. And that's what is really, on a daily basis, important to students."

Having moved to Vermont as a writer, social worker and academic, Edleson said he was drawn to the Commons dean position for the unique combination of experience it required.

"It's one of those odd things," said Edleson. "I've done a lot of different things in my career and the job description in the [newspaper] ad had connections to all these different things that I had done that didn't always seem so connected."

At the time the College was only beginning to decentralize student services and deans offices to create the modern Commons system. The early deans who Edleson worked with were headquartered in the Forest Basement Lounge before any Commons offices had been built.

"The charge was to develop a community in each Commons, to advocate on behalf of student needs, to make sure that we're overseeing both the academic and the social discipline part of students lives," said Edleson, "and that we really try to create a sense of looking at our students as whole people, and not just looking at them as a problem when they're in trouble."

Alongside Cook Commons Faculty Head and Professor of Italian Patricia Zupan, Edleson built on an existing community that has remained strong and respected, even as Commons such as Ross and Atwater have constructed new dormitories and state of the art dining halls.

"I think David has been an outstanding Commons dean," said Spears. "Cook Commons always, even before David Edleson became dean, always had the reputation of being a student-centered Commons. Pat and David have continued that tradition and strengthened it."

With his students, Edleson quickly became the legendary "Dean Dave," a name he said he might not have chosen for himself, but one that he has come to love. With a self-described "big personality," Edleson said he has tried to model for students the need to be comfortable in one's skin, not worry what others think and never be afraid of "going off the deep end."

"David is approachable in a way that students recognize that he really understands what they are going through - he 'gets' what it is like to be a student at Middlebury," said Cook Commons Residential Advisor Elizabeth Schaumberg '06. "He is known to be outspoken and a bit risquÈ, but it has made him incredibly well-liked and admired among Cook students."

Edleson said he hopes to return to Middlebury to teach a J-term class in the future. Administrators and students will collaborate in the national search for the next Cook Commons dean, with plans to hire a candidate before the fall.

"We may not actually interview candidates until the summer, but students from Cook will certainly be involved in the hiring process," said Spears. "I'm very hopeful we'll have a new Commons dean in September."

Students said they hoped for a candidate who could sustain the community that Cook had become.

"I think Cook has been one of the most successful Commons in terms of community building, and a lot of that has to do with Dean Dave's work," said Cox. "We want to make sure the next person is just as invested in this as he was."

Commons deans work on 11-month contracts, and Spears said he had not heard anything to suggest other Commons deans would be leaving the College this year.

"I don't think anyone else has made a definite decision," said Edleson about the intentions of his colleagues.

He added that whatever happens, the real work for his successor would be with students, not administrators. And he singled out the other Commons deans for their support.

"We're all different, but we are committed to working together, to collab
orating and finding common ground, and to supporting one another," said Edleson. "Whoever's my successor is going to have that at their side and supporting them all the way."