 "Photo: Lily Schorr | Student Life")
Julie Thornton, who has served as director of student activities for the past nine semesters, will be leaving Washington University at the end of this calendar year to become associate dean of students at Carleton College in Northfield, Minn. Senior News Editor Ben Sales sat down with Thornton as she reflected on her time at the University.
Student Life: What was the highlight of your time here?
Julie Thornton: The big thing is just how much the students can do here, how they come up with an idea and it happens: things as huge as the VP debate and the presidential debate four years ago, the programming that surrounded that and all the different things that students want to do. Big ideas that students have on some campuses, they get challenged. Here, what’s neat is that we rarely say no. We say, “Okay, how can we make that happen?”
SL: Some people call this an apathetic campus. How do you approach that attitude?
JT: It’s easy to point fingers at any campus and say, “This is the bubble we’re a part of, break out of it.” But you look at events that we have, what some of the cultural groups bring to our campus; they’re 100 percent student-run. Things like that bring the world to our campus.
SL: How can the Office of Student Activities (OSA) improve?
JT: From my vantage point working in Student Activities, we call ourselves this resource for involvement and leadership. We help students who are already involved to do bigger and better things. What I’d like to see my office do is to support more students and campus life in general. What more can we do to help the student who’s not necessarily involved or doesn’t think [he or she is] a leader on campus?
I think some people assume you have to be in a position of leadership to make a difference on campus. I don’t agree with that. How do you reach beyond the usual suspects to get those people involved? They need to be more connected beyond the classroom experience.
SL: How has the relationship between Student Union, student groups and the OSA improved?
JT: When I got here, we were on top of each other in the Women’s Building, but we just coexisted. I don’t think Student Union and student groups knew what Student Activities was, who we were or how we could help. One thing I’m proud of is getting ourselves out there physically, being at meetings, making ourselves available and showing interest in what’s happening on campus. It’s hard to be everywhere all the time, but there are opportunities.
SL: What more do you want to see from student groups in terms of cooperating with you?
JT: Treasury has required groups to meet with us to talk about their [budget] appeals. I’ve been so pleasantly surprised by the result. There [have] been PowerPoint presentations, full budget [presentations]. We’ve tried to work with student groups to be that much more prepared.
SL: What do you see as the mission of the OSA?
JT: How do we support students to explore, to connect and to lead? Explore, meaning finding things to get involved with on campus, exploring who they are, what’s important to them. Connecting with a community, redefining community. The third piece is working with the students, to help them lead that organization, to lead themselves. It’s different for everybody. So much of what we do is building relationships with students, with folks campus-wide to help students make connections, to help them do good things on campus.
SL: Since you started here, campus has changed a lot. How has that affected your experience?
JT: The creation of this building, the University Center, has been something I’ve been a part of since the day I got here. Change is everywhere and [at] this place we welcome it because we want things to be better.
SL: How have your relations with the rest of the administration improved over the years?
JT: What I’ve done since I’ve been here is reach out beyond campus life and [the Office of] Student Activities in order to get things done. You’ve got to know people. We all do a lot of the same work and support the same mission. A lot of people operate without doing a lot of communication. It’s a matter of walking over, picking up the phone and getting to know people, breaking down walls or barriers. Building relationships is something my office does a good job with. Even Chancellor Wrighton knows who I am, and that’s neat to be able to say that he knows what our office is doing.
SL: How do you feel about moving on to your new job?
JT: I’m excited. This position is a great mesh of all the positions I’ve had previously. Any new position is intimidating because it’s a new set of colleagues and a whole different student body to work with. There’s a whole new culture to take on, but I’m optimistic about how it will work out.
SL: What importance do you place on connecting with students at Carleton College?
JT: My success where I go will be getting to know as many people as possible at a higher level. Because of the position I’ll have, it’s going to be important to be available and accessible. The only way I see success is to throw myself out there and find out what’s working.
SL: Anything you want to say as a good-bye?
JT: It’s going to be hard to leave. It’s going to be weird to literally close the door. I’m going to cry. I don’t know how you quote this.
(Faculty Advisor, official and unofficial, to several student groups at WashU, 2002--present)