{"41348":{"#nid":"41348","#data":{"type":"news","title":"John Stein Named Dean of Students","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAfter an extensive search, Interim Dean of Students John Stein has been asked to make his post a permanent one. Stein had been serving as interim dean for more than six months. Earlier this month, he was named assistant vice president and dean of students.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EStein came to Tech in 2002 as the director of Success Programs. When former dean of students Gail DiSabatino left Tech earlier this year, he was asked to serve until a successor could be found. When it became clear to the search committee that its national search was not yielding the results it had hoped for, the focus was switched to an internal search. Stein put his name forward.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022John received tremendous support from students, faculty and staff during the process and that will be invaluable as he undertakes many important student life initiatives and programs in his new role,\u0022 said William Schafer, vice president for Student Affairs. \u0022I believe he can become another great dean of students in the series of outstanding individuals that have held this important position at Tech. I am delighted he is joining our Student Affairs team as the dean of students and look\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nforward to working with him.\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022I see it as my mission to carry on historical legacy and good work the former deans have done over time,\u0022 said Stein. In researching his new post, Stein recognized that previous deans had made it their mission to focus on a particular student need that wasn\u0027t being met.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022Floyd Field focused on the Greeks, [George] Griffin established the fund to help students who were experiencing some crisis or emergency and needed help to get them through it, [James] Dull worked on integration and DiSabatino helped Tech meet the needs of women,\u0022 said Stein. \u0022I\u0027m still formulating the areas I want to focus on.\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EOne area of need that Stein is working to meet is that of Tech\u0027s sophomore students. \u0022We need to place more focus on sophomore year,\u0022 he said. \u0022We do a great job with freshman experience, but sophomore year is a transition year. They\u0027re low on the totem pole: last to get housing, last to get courses, not as much support from the administration. We do so much for them in the freshman year, sophomores say that the second year is the first time they have to navigate Tech on their own.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EFinding Common Ground\u003C\/strong\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EBut perhaps the biggest challenge is Stein\u0027s desire to work with faculty to create bridges from student life to academic life. One area where that\u0027s sorely needed, he said, is in improving the quality of life and promoting intellectual discussion outside of the classroom.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022Tech students are the brightest population of students I\u0027ve worked with and they have tremendous potential to transform Tech and the world beyond, but if something is absent on this campus it\u0027s dialogue,\u0022 he said. \u0022We have such a multifaceted student body, that at times the students don\u0027t know how to talk to each other and don\u0027t know how to talk with people who are different from them.\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EOne of the central questions Stein has challenged himself to answer, he said is \u0022how do we maximize student involvement, given that Tech has such a range of cultures, beyond a way that\u0027s superficial?\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EIt\u0027s a difficult job, he admitted. After sitting in on a number of classes, Stein said he realized that Tech is very good at imparting intellectual knowledge into its students through the standard lecture format. But one thing students don\u0027t get a lot of practice doing at Tech is in dealing with ambiguities. Creating that bridge between student life and academic life will supplement the education they get in the classroom and better prepare them for life beyond Tech, he said.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022They\u0027re used to information flowing one way, from the professor to the student. They\u0027re not used to having an exchange of information and that can make it hard for them to deal with situations in which there isn\u0027t just one right answer,\u0022 Stein said.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u0022One engineering student told me he has difficulty in situations where he can\u0027t plug in numbers and get an answer. But through his work in student organizations, he has learned to deal with situations where he can\u0027t plug in a number - where he has to deal with ambiguities.\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EWorking with students to get them to initiate discussion is the key to helping Tech improve in these areas. A prime example of that, he said, is the Finding Common Ground series.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EAfter a series of speech incidents involving student groups and a lawsuit against Tech by two of students, the students decided they wanted to find a way in which they could better understand each other. As a result, a variety of student organizations, with the support of the administration, have developed what they hope is a first step in promoting civility and intellectual discussion on campus.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EConsisting of a series of dialogues among students and culminating with an address by poet Maya Angelou on Nov. 15 in the coliseum, Finding Common Ground is an attempt by the students to learn how to be comfortable when dealing with their differences and engage in discussion and disagreements constructively. Stein has been instrumental in working with students to get this series off the ground.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022The best solutions arise when students initiate things and have the support of the administration, said Stein. \u0022It\u0027s my job to help them do that.\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"New Dean of Students John Stein aims to improve students\u0027 quality of life and promote intellectual discussion outside of the classroom.","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Bridging academic and student life among goals"}],"uid":"27310","created_gmt":"2006-11-01 01:00:00","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:02:23","author":"David Terraso","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2006-11-01T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2006-11-01T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"41349":{"id":"41349","type":"image","title":"John Stein","body":null,"created":"1449174301","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 20:25:01","changed":"1475894368","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:39:28","alt":"John Stein","file":{"fid":"190058","name":"ttm06258.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/ttm06258_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/ttm06258_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1008416,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/ttm06258_0.jpg?itok=zN7b-MeN"}}},"media_ids":["41349"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.deanofstudents.gatech.edu\/","title":"Office of the Dean of Students"}],"groups":[{"id":"1183","name":"Home"}],"categories":[{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"},{"id":"132","name":"Institute Leadership"},{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"}],"keywords":[{"id":"1876","name":"Academic"},{"id":"2611","name":"affairs"},{"id":"2078","name":"dean"},{"id":"2610","name":"intellectuall"},{"id":"170805","name":"stein"},{"id":"167058","name":"Student"},{"id":"166847","name":"students"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EGeorgia Tech Media Relations\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ELaura Diamond\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:laura.diamond@comm.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Elaura.diamond@comm.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-894-6016\u003Cbr \/\u003EJason Maderer\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:maderer@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Emaderer@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-660-2926\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["david.terraso@comm.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}