Boswell takes on new advisory role

Vice Provost for Student Affairs Kevin Shollenberger emailed the University community on March 27 to announce that Susan Boswell, dean of student life, will be stepping down to take on a new role as his special advisor on July 1. Terry Martinez, the interim dean of students at Columbia University, will take over as the new dean of student life.

Boswell has served in her current role for 12 years and acted as dean of students for 13 years before that. 

“Dean Boswell and I started discussing gender equity and what we could do at the University to better promote this dialogue last fall,” Shollenberger wrote an email to The News-Letter.

He said they felt that they had to establish a school-wide policy on the issue of sexual violence.

“Dean Boswell is passionate on this issue and very knowledgeable; her extensive experience at JHU made her a natural fit,” he wrote.

In his email to the Hopkins community, Shollenberger described specifically what Boswell will focus on in her new position. This includes the creation of programs dedicated to promoting gender equity, improving support services for those involved in incidents of sexual assault and gender violence and the creation of a new procedure for assisting students dealing with any number of personal issues. 

Junior Addie Crabb commended Boswell on her passionate approach to helping students at the University and on her decision to expand the support system already in place.

“Good for Dean Boswell, we need that,” Crabb said, expressing concern that there had not been a greater emphasis placed on gender violence in the past. “I thought they probably had a department to deal with this kind of stuff and I’m just shocked that this type of focus on the issues didn’t exist already.”

Shollenberger noted a similar need to expand programs devoted to issues of sexual violence and gender inequality.

“These issues . . . are critical to fostering a supportive academic community,” he wrote. “We always need to ask ourselves, ‘What more should we be doing?’”

Evan Tassis, a junior and member of the fraternity Phi Gamma Delta, noted the changes being made on campus with respect to those concerns.

“We had to do bystander training so that we can be ready to stop sexual violence and rapes from occurring,” he said.

Tassis also said that members of his fraternity as well as three other fraternities took a course on the subject at Boswell’s direction. He added that the University is making efforts to increase the number of individuals who complete the same training.

“They’re trying to spread it so that everyone has to do it, which I think is important,” he said.

Administration officials said Boswell has been committed to the advancement of gender equity and the end of sexual violence since the beginning of her tenure at Hopkins.

“It was actually one of the issues that she worked on when she first came to Hopkins over 28 years ago,” Shollenberger wrote. “She has worked closely with SARU and was a critical leader in the establishment of the Sexual Assault Safeline last year.”

Crabb was emphatic that it was critical to address the issue of sexual violence on campus.

“[Sexual violence] is something that’s always happened on campus, not ours specifically, but because of alcohol and unfamiliar situations, women can often be sexually abused,” she said.

Boswell will have newfound focus and time in her new role to address that and other issues. She will also leave a legacy of several significant advancements, including the founding of the Center for Social Concern, the expansion of the Counseling Center, the establishment of the Office of Multicultural Affairs and the growth of Campus Ministries.

Shollenberger addressed faculty, students and staff again on Tuesday to ask for help in welcoming Martinez, Boswell’s replacement. Martinez will join the Homewood community as associate provost and dean of student life, taking on Boswell’s old role.

Martinez, who also previously served as dean of community development and multicultural affairs at Columbia, had worked with Shollenberger while he was student affairs dean there.

Shollenberger, who was a member of the group charged with finding a new dean of student life, expressed his high level of confidence in the abilities of Martinez.

“I know that she’s a strong advocate for students,” he wrote. “I believe her experience serving students from diverse backgrounds as well as her strength in residential life and other community-enhancing initiatives makes her the ideal person to fill this critical role at Johns Hopkins.”