Janet Dickerson, Princeton’s first vice president for campus life, will retire at the end of the academic year, the University announced on Thursday morning.
“She’s one of the most humane and caring people that I know,” President Tilghman said of Dickerson in an interview with The Daily Princetonian. “For the whole time working with her, she’s been completely devoted to Princeton students.”
Dickerson oversees the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students, the Department of Athletics, University Health Services, the Office of Religious Life and the Pace Center. She also serves as the University’s liaison to the ROTC program and co-chaired both the Diversity Working Group and the Task Force on Health and Well-Being.
Dickerson said in an interview on Thursday that she created a list of objectives to guide her upon her arrival at Princeton, adding that she has kept that small piece of torn-out notebook paper throughout her time at the University. The goals include building trust, establishing teamwork, empowering students, using technology effectively and identifying leadership.
Dickerson also took part in the establishment of the four-year residential college system and the LGBT Center, as well as in the openings of Frist Campus Center in 2000 and the new Campus Club and Fields Center this fall.
Those efforts reflect a vision Dickerson detailed to the ‘Prince’ after her appointment in April 2000, when she said she hoped to increase the number of alternative social venues at Princeton.
“I think the campus should be a place where every student should be comfortable,” she said at the time.
Dickerson is a graduate of the Western College for Women, which was merged into Miami University in Ohio in the 1970s. She came to the University in 2000 after serving for nine years as vice president for student affairs at Duke and also spent 10 years as dean of the college at Swarthmore.
“Janet’s a person who exudes dignity. She identifies with the underdog, and she has always been empathetic with and sympathetic to the concerns of students on campus,” Director of Athletics Gary Walters ’67 said.
Several colleagues noted that Dickerson has worked to improve the status and representation of minority groups on campus.
Dean of Religious Life Alison Boden noted that Dickerson was especially supportive of hiring the University’s first full-time Muslim and Hindu chaplains.
Tilghman also noted that Dickerson has been a “tremendous supporter” of the LGBT Center.
“I think the prominence of the LGBT Center in Frist, instead of hidden away in West College, is another accomplishment,” Tilghman said of Dickerson’s tenure.
Dickerson has focused on combating high-risk drinking on campus during her time at Princeton.
“We’ve spent a great deal of time trying to improve the alcohol culture,” Tilghman said. “This is probably something we’ll pay attention to into the foreseeable future.”
Dickerson cited AlcoholEdu, substance-free sections of colleges, the “Alcohol: Just the Facts” booklet and the Alcohol Coalition Committee as some of the ways her office has tried to inform students of the risks associated with alcohol consumption and encourage them to take responsibility.
“We have worked to engage students and encourage students to be deciding their own futures,” said Dickerson, who added that she wants Princeton students to be less “timid” in their exploration of resources and civic engagement on campus.
Executive Vice President Mark Burstein, to whom Dickerson reports, said in a statement that he hopes to announce her successor by the spring semester. Burstein will chair an 11-member search committee that includes six administrators, two professors, two undergraduates and one graduate student.
“The Vice President for Campus Life has one of the broadest and most complex portfolios of any administrative office in the University, from the Chapel to athletics and everything in between,” Tilghman said. “It takes someone with a lot of breadth of interest.”
Dickerson said she sees her retirement as an opportunity to reinvent herself and perhaps work on the national or global level, but she will miss many aspects of working with campus life.
“All of my time here has been learning for my future,” she said. “I will miss Princeton, and all of the places where I’ve worked. One of the things I will miss most is the daily contact with students.”
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