When he first came to New York, Kevin Shollenberger planned to stay for five years, at most. Now, he is going on his eleventh year in the city and doesn’t plan on leaving anytime soon.
After acting as interim dean of student affairs and vice president for undergraduate life for the past year-and-a-half, he will now take on the position permanently, Columbia administrators announced Monday.
Columbia College Dean Michele Moody-Adams and SEAS Dean Feniosky Peña-Mora announced Shollenberger’s appointment in an email to Student Affairs staff. While his two-year interim term isn’t technically over until the summer, Shollenberger’s appointment is retroactive to Jan. 1, meaning that, on record, his new role started at the beginning of the calendar year.
“Having had the opportunity of working with Kevin for the past eight months, I am pleased that his permanent title now reflects and recognizes his leadership in creating a welcoming and challenging environment for our students, one that fosters their own personal and intellectual growth, as well as leadership,” Peña-Mora said in an individual statement.
Despite the slight change in his position, Shollenberger said that he sees his goals as ongoing: he wants to improve advising, remain accessible and visible to students, and increase transparency in the Columbia bureaucracy.
He said that he is particularly focused on SEAS sophomore advising and students’ transitions between their general advisors in the Center and their departmental advisors.
While he aims to be a campus resource, Shollenberger—who was recently a starring character in this year’s Varsity Show preview—acknowledged that student interaction is still a challenge in his position.
“I really have to make a goal and an effort to make sure I have regular contact with students, that I’m just not caught up in meetings all day,” he said, adding that he goes to as many student meetings as he can.
“I learned very early on in coming here that you just can’t say ‘no’ to students. Part of a Columbia student and a Columbia education is to really have constructive arguments and debate. I like having those difficult conversations with students,” he added.
The cornerstone of Shollenberger’s tenure has been community building, a purpose he has restructured the student affairs office around, he said.
Kamal Yechoor, SEAS ’11 and ESC junior class president, said he supported the decision. In times of significant administrative transition, Shollenberger brought stability to student affairs, Yechoor said.
He also praised what he called Shollenberger’s accessibility to students, noting that the dean hosts his own fireside chats. “Every time he sees us in the halls, he is quick to say ‘hi,’” Yechoor said.
Kenny Durell, CC ’12 and a CCSC representative, said he found Shollenberger to be “super easy-going and easy to meet with.”
But Durell believes that Shollenberger has overlooked some large issues. “He is very into this community-building thing. I think he misses the forest for the trees,” Durell said, citing the recent decision not to offer gender-neutral rooming for the 2010 housing lottery as an example. But, “you can only focus on so many things,” he added.
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