Meghan Leavitt
While we welcome a new University president this 2024-2025 school year, we are also welcoming a new Dean of Students. Adrienne White served as the Director of Student Success Coaching at George Mason University before coming to the Mount.
While she made a big change at George Mason, she also has many plans to change and make Mount St. Mary’s a better place.
Already looking around and talking to people, they love White because of how much she interacts with students. This is one of the biggest goals as Dean of Students. She has made it very clear that there cannot be change in the Mount community without having the ability to hear what students both want and need but also enforcing the change.
While White has many goals here at the Mount and has already enforced some changes, she also plans on creating a “greater focus on student experience”. She says this is because “as the Dean of Students, it is important that we know what the student perspective is and what needs to be done to make sure that it will reflect not only what students want but ensuring that the students are able to succeed.”
One way that she plans on making sure these goals become accomplished by creating a greater communication between the different offices, capitalizing on technology around the University and focusing on the overall well-being of the students. White stated, “I am obligated to help out students become well rounded good people.”
White knew the Mount would be the right fi t for her during her Zoom interview with the search committee. She stated, “The search committee has representation from everywhere that sends a clear message that everyone has a say in the future of the University.”
Another reason she chose the Mount is because of President Gerald Joyce. She says that Joyce shows that he cares for the Mount community, and she wants to, “work for someone who is student centered.” Having this quality in a boss is very important to her.
When talking about Joyce she said, “I cannot stress it enough about how good of a human Dr. Joyce is and how much he cares about the Mount community.” White also wanted to give a shout-out to Annieka Bangura (C’26) because she influenced her to be active on social media platforms such as Instagram. Now
White is active on Instagram and interacting with not only students who follow her but also with club and student organization pages. This has allowed students to invite her to events around campus like the early morning spin classes. It has allowed her to be connected to and embrace the Mount community.
At the end of the interview, she discussed things students should know about her. The one big message she wanted to communicate to the students is, “I am here for the students, I have a job because of the students. I want students to feel that they can come to me with anything at any time, my DMs are always open!” It is clear that White is a wonderful addition to the Mount community and cares about the students’ well-being.
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