Interview with the Dean of Lamson and Meier Halls

I spoke to Dean Matthew Fitting about his role at Andrews and the approach that he takes to interacting with faith and students as a Dean. He shares his perspectives on what makes his job meaningful and describes the energy that he wants to bring into the new semester.

Can you do a short introduction of yourself and explain what you do for the dorms?

Sure, my name is Matthew Fitting, and I'm the Dean for Undergraduate Residence Life. I oversee the programming for both Meier and Lamson Halls because they are undergraduate residence buildings. And with that I have a team of individuals that I also oversee. There are four other assistant deans and then there's eight student deans, and we also have residence assistants and so on. I basically oversee the programming that has to deal with all of our undergraduate life, living and policies.

What makes you passionate about this job and working here at Andrews?

Well, that stems all the way back from my high school experience. I had an opportunity to go to a boarding school that was located in Illinois –  Broadview Adventist Academy. I lived in the residence hall. I had a couple of deans that really inspired in me a sense of community and how to expand your worldviews. Because if you just have one viewpoint, and you stay limited to that, then you don't really grow as a person. So that's really what ignited it. And when I was at Andrews University in undergrad, I really felt the Holy Spirit calling me to be a part of the ministry. The passion at Andrews comes from the fact that I truly believe that God brought me and my family here, and it's kind of fun to come back to a place where I was once a student and be able to play a role that once again interacts with the development of our students and the future of our world.

How would you say 2022 has gone for you, and what are some of your expectations for 2023? Are there any changes in the dorms that you might envision seeing?

You know, 2022 has really been what I would describe as drinking from a fire hydrant. So you come in and there isn’t much time to start the year off with a lot of preparation or understanding of what was already in place. Through this first semester, I’ve been trying to observe how things typically play out here, and at the same time forcing the need for some change because we did a restructure in our undergraduate life. Andrews changed things by putting deans from both Meier and Lamson under one umbrella. Bringing our team together, having our RAs have our meetings together, helping our deans to understand that we're servicing both sides of campus has been something that we've had to do on the fly. All of our deans and our student workers have done a tremendous job of being able to stay fluid with that movement as we've made changes. I truly believe that coming out of Covid, a lot of us are dealing with change fatigue. And so it's hard to continue to do that over and over again, without enough time to develop the ‘why’ behind the change. I think that we cope better when we understand the why. I really want to be able to understand what has been working here at Andrews within Residence Life—our policies, evening accountability, how we deal with noise within the building. The other thing that’s important to me is how we can ensure that the physical nature of the building is taken care of. But we should ask ourselves, Are we vacuuming? Are we cleaning? Are we doing the things that can help cut down on the—dare I say the word—mold? And how do we care about our neighbor who lives next door? Are we mindful of our noise? Are we caring enough to check-in with someone if we notice that their facial features are displaying something that could align with depression? Do we ask that person how they're doing and try to understand what they might be going through, or leave them to someone who wouldn't be comfortable to ask those questions? It comes back to that idea that really brought me passion within Residence Life: how do we become a community—and not just people who are all in proximity to each other—a true community. How do we start developing that?

Recently, there have been students complaining about disparities between Meier and Lamson. A lot of people are complaining about smaller dorm sizes, broken vending machines, etc. How would you address those concerns for people living in Lamson?

I think people thought that Meier and Lamson were more alike than they actually are. Not only in what a room could look like, but even in the idea of how it is being operated on a day-to-day basis. And while they are somewhat similar, there are some differences. When people found out about those differences, it's fair to feel as though one side has something better or worse. I think that's one of the exciting things for me as we've put undergraduates under one umbrella: now people have that awareness. The deans at Meier are also the deans for Lamson, so they're having to physically encounter both environments. The more they understand it, the more they can talk about it to our administration and to our bosses. [The size of the rooms] is one of those things that is unfortunate. I know that part of the conversation with our facilities, and a larger scale here at the university is revealing the opportunity of saying, How can we maximize space at Lamson? One of the advantages is that there is more physical space in Lamson. There are more rooms than there are in Meier but they're smaller rooms. So are there opportunities where we could create more suites or we could combine two rooms or  something like that? The other issue you talked about was vending machines. Honestly, I don't know what it is with vending machines in all places. But they seem to be down frequently in Meier and in Lamson. And so I know trying to help bring those up is something that's not out of our control. We should try to let someone know whenever that happens. And I think that's one of the things that I would close out with: I've enjoyed my opportunity to talk with different students this year and hear their perspectives, but I think what we need to find is a good way to channel that so that we're making sure that the people who need to be aware, are aware. You know, I think it's very easy sometimes to write it off, and kind of pass it and just say, Oh, that's Lamson for you. But especially as we're starting to get new staff coming in we don't have the history or the context so we're not aware of problems. So I'll give you an example. There's no way I'm going to know the condition of a shower up on the third floor in Lamson on the community side right now, right, because there's no way for me to go in there and explore it. Now, a student may live on third floor community who goes in there everyday and knows the third stall is constantly having issues. You can never get it to turn hot, let's say, and I'm not going to know that unless that student helps inform me—or more directly, Dean Duncan Fitzroy, who oversees our Facilities and Operations. If he's not aware of that, then he can't ensure that it gets fixed. I think sometimes people can be fearful that their complaint isn’t taken seriously but I haven't found that our students are complaining. It's more so trying to create awareness for change. These are things that I can help bring recognition to.

To close off, what are some of your favorite things about the job?

I love the opportunity to hear people's stories. You know, being able to know who a resident is, not just as a name and not just an ID number. An ID number is so convenient when we're trying to find something on the Vault on the computer, but I want to really know someone's name and what makes them tick as a person. What are they passionate about? What TV show are they watching right now? What is something new that they've learned while they're in their area of study here at Andrews? So I'm really enjoying meeting different people, and it's exciting to kind of just see that develop. If I'm lucky enough, I'm going to have students who come in and stay here for years and then they graduate and they go on to something new. I believe that is extra special within a Christian environment because I believe that those are stories that I won't only be able to hear now, but also in heaven. I believe that there's going to be that day we're going to be able to connect again, and even if it's not here at Andrews, it can be in heaven. And I can continue to hear how those stories play out.