As a stereotypical college student, I am accustomed to leaving everything until the last minute. A typical day will end at around three in the morning, and the next one will start approximately six hours later with a cold shower and a cup of medium iced coffee in a large cup with extra ice, three packets of sugar, and tons of two percent milk. The idea of planning, setting appointments, and being on time to things is akin to the idea of buying a lottery ticket and hoping to win – yes it’s a nice thought, but unless all the stars align at just the right moment, it is a purely unattainable goal. At Goucher College, the students are privileged to have a friendly set of deans to call our own, who have set aside hours multiple times a week solely for talking with students.
Mobile Dean, while certainly not one of Goucher’s most pioneering products, is an efficient and accessible way for students to get to know the deans. Mobile Dean occurs at least two times a week for about an hour, in different areas each time, but usually ones of high student traffic. Bryan Coker, the Vice President and Dean of Students, Andrew Wu, the Associate Dean for Student Development, and Stacy Cooper Patterson, the Associate Dean of Students for Community Life, comprise the elite squad known as the Mobile Dean. They can usually be found somewhere on Van Meter with a Mobile Dean flag and, more often than not, a bowl of candy. Jokingly, Dean Coker says that “earbuds are our worse enemy, candy is our best friend.”
The inspiration for Mobile Dean came from the higher-up administration interested in seeing more students. Dean Coker says, that while he enjoys getting to know the students, “it’s easy for [him] to see twenty percent of students, total.” He states “Often that is the ten percent of students who are involved in everything…and then the other ten percent of students, are in serious crisis.” While he loves his position as Vice President and Dean of Students, the unfortunate factor is that the higher up a person goes in the academic totem pole, they are less available to spend time with students.
First-Year Experience (FYE) instructor, Moe De la Viez-Perez ’19 says that she really likes Mobile Dean: “it’s a cool opportunity… kind of like open hours.” Though she thoroughly enjoys Mobile Dean, she does express concern about whether or not other students know exactly what it is used for. De la Viez-Perez said that it was not a topic talked about in the FYE classes and that it’s likely first-years do not know what to do with this great tool.
When talking to other students, many expressed that they were unsure of the Mobile Dean’s purpose. The majority of students said that it really didn’t seem like it was worth the effort; due to students running to-and-from classes, clubs, and other extracurriculars, it is difficult to actually stop and talk to the various Deans, especially when the Mobile Dean only occurs for an hour at a time. While Dean Coker recognizes that it has been difficult to market Mobile Dean, he encourages students to check out the Goucher College website in order to see updated dates and times for when it is happening, and he prompts student to never be afraid to “Ask Your M.D. (Mobile Dean).”
