Always on duty: AWC’s campus life a 24/7 job
Campus life. The final frontier (before adulthood).
These are the philosophies of Arizona Western College’s Dean of Campus Life Mary Kay Harton and her continuing mission to expose students to strange new worlds, to educate them by with knowledge and ideas, to engage them with organizations, and enlighten them to boldly go where no Matador has gone before.
Doing all that can be a 24-7 job, Harton recently said at a governing board meeting of the community college district, which includes all of Yuma and La Paz counties.
“This is my philosophy that I came up with to expose, educate, engage and enlighten students,” she said during a presentation on AWC’s Student Life. “Sometimes I can get it done in a semester and sometimes it takes 10 years.”
Being dean of campus life at Arizona Western College means wearing a lot of “hats” during the course of a day, Harton said, because the office of the dean of campus life encompasses so many categories such as the International Student Program, residence halls, clubs and organizations, student government, campus-wide activities, student academic integrity, and more, all while adhering to applicable local, state and federal laws and programs.
Harton said (jokingly) that sometimes she has to be the “wicked witch of the West; a super sleuth; and a little bit Willy Wonka,” in her various roles throughout the day.
“We really work in campus life to foster an environment that fulfills our mission by creating safe and inclusive learning communities that support, challenge and inspire all students to be good citizens and ethical leaders in a diverse society,” she told the board.
“We do this by exposing students to engaging and educational events and activities around a wide variety of topics and issues,” she said. “We retain students when we provide them with opportunity to connect and engage with faculty, staff and other community partners…. and hopefully along the way they become inspired to enlightened to pursue their degrees.”
Campus Life also oversees the College Assistant Migrant Program CAM), the District TRIO programs, Student Support Services (KEYS), Talent Search, Upward Bound and student conduct.
The residential program houses 342 student athletics, the students in the CAM program and several other programs, Harton said, and sometimes there’s a learning curve with life skills.
“We had a fire in a washing machine because they put a mattress in the washing machine -- a foam mattress -- and the chief told me you need to teach them how to do laundry,” she said.
Nearly 60 percent of the college’s freshmen are first-generation college students, according to data from AWC’s annual report. For the fall semester, the campus life office saw 108 allcampus events; 84 club events (at least 84 club activity request forms were submitted); the student government association held 32 events; and SGA and clubs worked together on 16 community service events, Harton said.
Through the student services grants programs, 833 students were reached or served, including 524 sixth-12th graders in the Talent Search program; 69 students participated in Upward Bound; and 240 students through the Keep Envisioning Your Success program.
In the area of student conduct, which also includes academic integrity, the dean’s office has multiple programs in place to help students through tough times, whether it be academic or personal.
“When life happens students can’t focus on class,” Harton said. “We focus on getting them the resources, they need to succeed. It really takes a village.”