A campus-wide email sent Feb. 19 announced that Interim Dean of Students Vivian Garay Santiago accepted President Stritikus’ offer to become dean of students. She has worked at Occidental College for 10 years within the Dean of Students office.
Before joining Occidental, she held roles focused on aiding students at universities across the country, including the University of Vermont and San Diego State University. Santiago said her work has always been centered around supporting students in need.
“I was looking to find something that felt right inside of me,” Santiago said. “And I feel like I finally found it when I realized that the population I really felt effective and loved working with was students who were struggling. Not because I enjoyed watching people struggle, but there was something really meaningful about helping them navigate those struggles, get through them and get them back on track.”
In her previous role as Occidental’s assistant dean of students and director of student support, she collaborated with Assistant Dean of Students and Director of Residential Education Isaiah Thomas to improve the student experience.
“[Dean Santiago] and I worked closely on developing new ways to extend student support in the residence halls,” Thomas said. “One of our collaborations was on developing protocols for [Residential Education & Housing Services] professional staff and RAs to be trained in providing support to students who are struggling and who need to be connected to resources, such as Emmons Wellness Center.”
Her previous roles focused more on providing personal guidance to students. In contrast, Santiago said her position as dean of students now focuses on broader goals.
“Now, it’s more about ‘how do we improve students’ satisfaction and belonging on campus for everybody?’” Santiago said. “What program or what do we need to tweak and fix so that all students can benefit […] I’m still supporting students individually, but I’m doing more of the higher-level campus wide stuff, which is a different shift into something I’m still acclimating to.”
Although having acted as interim dean of students and her background in student support, Santiago said the transition into the position as dean of students is still a point of an adjustment for her.
“[As the interim dean] it was like [I was making] sure it’s taken care of until […] the new president really decides what he wants to do,” Santiago said. “Now that I’m in this role, I can go, ‘What do I want the division of student affairs to look like moving forward?’ I feel like now, I can start to grapple with what the vision is.”
Stritikus said he is confident in Santiago’s ability to lead as dean of students because of her past involvement in student affairs.
“I’ve seen her commitment to promoting student well-being, belonging and engagement,” Stritikus said. “She brings a very clear focus on student culture and our culture of care. I’m just always just always excited by her energy that she brings to serving our students.”
Assistant Dean of Students for Emmons Wellness Center Devon Sakamoto, who has worked with Santiago the past three years, said Santiago is a strong leader and appreciates her approach to building relationships across campus.
“I like being able to brainstorm and problem solve with her if issues come up in my work and I need to bounce ideas off of someone or find a solution to something,” Sakamoto said. “And I appreciate her transparency and honesty with her staff and the humor she brings to work, too.”
Moving forward, Stritikus said he looks forward to continuing to work with Santiago and pursuing projects that further support students.
“I’m really excited about something that we started in the fall, which is to increase joy and engagement on campus,” Stritikus said. “This has been our work, to have increased student life on campus, activities for students, also places where students can have fun.”
Thomas said that Santiago continues to work on developing new ways to support students’ experience on campus.
“Recently, Dean Santiago spearheaded an initiative to enhance restorative practices throughout Student Affairs to better build community and navigate through the natural challenging times Oxy students experience both within and outside of Oxy,” Thomas said. “She is also collaborating with Interim Dean Kathryn Leonard so that restorative practices can be utilized within all facets of life at Oxy, outside and inside of the classroom.”
Santiago said she is optimistic about her future as the dean of students at Occidental and hopes to help more students.
“I’m really optimistic, cautiously optimistic, because there’s a lot of things going on in the national landscape that are really alarming and make the day-to-day really hard,” Santiago said. “But I love being on a college campus. I love working with students […] I really want to have a hand in [shaping campus] and making this place an even more positive place to be.”
Contact Allyson Chan at achan2@oxy.edu
