New Dean No Stranger To Iowa State by Steve Sullivan Years before being named dean of students, Kathleen MacKay was involved with Iowa State. In fact, there was a book written about it. MacKay was a Ph.D. candidate at Indiana University in 1989 when she was chosen to be part of a research team studying colleges and universities with reputations for having highly involved students. (Iowa State was chosen for the study due, in large part, to the numerous leadership opportunities, academic clubs and special interest organizations offered students.) The project brought MacKay to campus in the winter of 1989. The study's findings were published in a book written by the research team and titled Involving Colleges: Successful Approaches to Fostering Student Learning and Development Outside the Classroom. "The project was exciting because I saw it go from idea to binding," said MacKay, who prior to becoming dean of students in May was director of co-curricular activities at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. "The premise was that students learn more when they are involved with their institution. We visited selected institutions to see what they were doing to make this happen, and one of the site visits I made was to Iowa State. I remember when I was leaving telling another member of the research team, 'This is a place I could work.'" The fact that she now is working here is all the more ironic and interesting because MacKay originally never planned to go to college, let alone work at one. "I was engaged when I graduated from high school and was never going to go to college," she said. "But things changed and now I have a Ph.D. and a career." MacKay brings a range of campus experiences to Iowa State. She has worked at schools big and small, public and private. Since she was the non-traditional age of 20 when she entered college as a freshman, MacKay has personal insights into being a member of the special population on a college campus. Her dissertation compared African American and white student involvement and educational experiences at predominantly white colleges and universities. Four years as associate dean of students at Mills College, a women's school in Oakland, Calif., further immersed MacKay in the needs and perspectives of special populations. At Mills, MacKay's duties included working with non-traditional students and a black women's collective. "Working at a small, private institution was the best thing I ever did because it showed me what an environment can be like when you aren't fighting lots of things. Mills was all women, so there were very few sexist jokes, for example," MacKay said. "When environment is right, positive things can happen. I want to be a catalyst at Iowa State to help students have a positive environment in which to make the most of their time here." Mills also gave MacKay experience as a disciplinarian. One semester, she put an entire residence hall on probation for an alcohol violation. "Most of the students in the residence hall were freshmen and my decision wasn't very popular," she said. "But they knew right then what to expect from me and, while they didn't like it, they ultimately came to respect the decision. When those students were seniors, they voted me an honorary member of the senior class." MacKay now is busy getting settled into her new office and a new community. Her immediate goals for the dean of students office are filling the long-vacant assistant dean of students for organizations and activities position, further development of student leadership programs and greater involvement in the university's retention effort. "Having an inclusive campus environment and retaining students is everybody's job and I expect the dean of students staff to be involved in it. But unless everyone on campus is involved, it doesn't work," MacKay said. _____ contact: Steve Sullivan, (515) 294-3720 updated: 5-26-95