After six years of service in her current role, Dean of Students Jody Asbury should be commended for all the work she has done for UR students and the greater community. Though she is remaining with the University in an ancillary teaching role, her presence in the administration will be sorely missed.
Asbury has made community engagement a hallmark of her tenure as dean of students. Through the Rochester Center for Community Leadership, the Urban Fellows Program and various internships and activities, she has stressed this notion and helped to forge a greater connection between the University campuses and the city of Rochester.
She applied the ideals behind the Rochester Curriculum to aspects of student life beyond academics, giving students independence in co-curricular activities and freedom to pursue their own interests.
What students will remember most about Asbury, however, is how she made the most of her role on a personal level. Despite the tremendous responsibility of her job, she knew the names and faces of every student with whom she came into contact. She prided herself not only on fulfilling the technical role of dean of students, but on making herself personally available to all who sought her help. Her door was always open, and she made it clear through her words and her demeanor that when you sat down to talk, you were the most important thing on her mind.
Surely the search committee will be astute and judicious in the pursuit of a permanent replacement for the position, but it will be tremendously difficult to fill the shoes of such a supportive and wonderful person. Dean Asbury’s impact on this student body, both as a whole and as individuals, is immeasurable and will never be forgotten.
