2008 Woodie Awards
Dr. Colette Geary Named Dean
Courtney Roy
Issue date: 2/2/05 Section: Features
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Although many may not know her personally, she has been an active member here at Manhattan College since 1997, when she began serving in the Counseling Center, later becoming the Director of Counseling and Health Services. Even during her years as a Manhattan student, Dr. Geary stayed very busy, serving as an RA, and later on as an RD at the College of Mount St. Vincent. After graduation, she earned her Ph. D. in Psychology from SUNY Stonybrook, and was a guest lecturer here at Manhattan College.
This position is often viewed as one of a disciplinarian, but Dr. Geary would like to work closely with students and understand what it is like to be a student now, so that she can better serve us. Rather than becoming a punisher, she would like to become an advocate for the students, making a stronger community for all. She is extremely interested in student's issues, and would like to support them in efforts to make Manhattan College a better place to learn and live. Her main goal for this semester is to "Get to know students, get involved, and talk directly with students, to better understand was it is like to be a student now." Coming to Dr. Geary with an issue should never be a problem-she is very open and willing to listen to the ideas of the student body. In addition to fulfilling her duties as Dean of Students, she would also like to assist John Mark, the Director of Residence Life and the other members of the Residence Life staff, who are often faced with heavy workloads.
In addition to getting acquainted with the student body and assisting the residence life staff, Dr. Geary has been working intensely with Student Government in order to become more involved in student programs, but to also help to set up a new online voting system for Student Government elections to make voting easier and more convenient for the student body. In the past, Manhattan College has seen low voter turn out for these elections, but Dr. Geary and the members of Student Government hope that by making the process more accessible to students, more will vote and become active in the process. In the new voting system, students will also be able to see a photo and read the personal information and qualifications of each candidate, in order to make a more informed decision. While some may believe that these elections are trivial, Student Government plays a large role in campus life, and the more involvement on campus, the officers can better serve students. She has also been discussing many long-term plans to upgrade MCTV, and is even exploring options to make it possible to one day air tapes of campus events. Her ultimate vision for Manhattan College is for it to become "the premier Catholic college in New York City." Achieving this goal is very important to Dr. Geary, and to accomplish this she feels that "We need to focus on things that make us attractive to the prospective student-academic excellence, diversity, and a New York City location. During my time as Dean of Students, I hope to make significant contributions outside of the classroom and build the campus community."
Resident students are not her only focus, however. She would also like to reach out to Manhattan's commuter students, who make up not only a very important section of the student body, but also a relatively large portion of students. Many of the commuter students here are very active on campus, and she feels that it is important to make sure that their needs are being met as well.