With a focus on elevating student success, Tamron Lee, the new dean of students, shares his goals to enhance students’ experience on campus.
Lee is originally from Washington and has worked in higher education for over 15 years. He graduated from Dixie State University with a bachelor’s degree and earned both a master’s degree and a doctorate in business administration.
In addition to the new position, Lee teaches marketing courses for the College of Business, which allows him to use his professional experience to help students directly.
Before becoming dean of students, Lee had already done work to help the student body, including a SWOT analysis. SWOT analysis helps the university to understand its advantages and areas for improvement. It stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.
Lee said, “From that work, I gained a lot of insight into what things could be improved [and] expanded.”
Lee became the dean of students because he wants to help students be successful in their academic life and to be a source of support for them.
“I love helping students succeed, and the dean of students allows me to do that,” Lee said. “Oftentimes, the dean of students has to deal with topics and situations that are difficult, but it is also very rewarding helping students to overcome difficult challenges.”
The four main goals Lee has are hearing students, participating in student engagement, ensuring the safety of students, and focusing on student conduct and community standards.
Hearing students
Focusing on interactions with students, Lee plans to find ways to connect with different groups of students to meet their needs. First, he wants to conduct meetings with students who need help. Lee also plans to communicate with students in their club spaces and participate in listening lunches, which will cover different topics. The board of trustees will be present at some of the lunches as well.
Participating in student engagement
Attending students’ activities is one more important goal for Lee. He wants to provide students with special games during events. One of them is “chuck and chicken,” where a person places a toy chicken on a launch pad and tries to launch it as far as possible into an empty basket on the ground.
“I will get it out during events like Club Rush or randomly throughout the semester, to try to connect students who are walking to and from class,” Lee said.
Ensuring the safety of students
The third point that Lee wants to focus on is safety on campus and study areas for students. He plans to provide students with safety and support.
“I am really interested in focusing on student safety and well-being,” Lee said.
Student conduct and community standards
Lee’s final goal is student conduct and community standards. Lee said it is important for him to ensure that each student’s code of conduct is upheld to promote fairness and respect for all students on campus.
Addison Williams, a junior marketing major from Las Vegas, shared her thoughts on the dean of students.
“I think students will be able to get more of the resources they could use and use it to their advantage,” Williams said. “I am curious and open to see what [he will] have to offer to the campus, because I feel like it could be really useful and helpful.”
Some students have already had an opportunity to meet with Lee. One of those students is Avary Hirschi, a freshman psychology major from St. George.
Hirschi said she met the new dean of students during her orientation at Utah Tech, and she feels excited about future campus improvements.
Lee acknowledged that the university can always do more to maintain students’ experience.
“There is always work to be done to improve the student experience, whether that is through ‘active learning. active life.’ program, or by finding ways to improve various student services,” Lee said.
