From: Tim Foster
To: all_students; all_employees
Date: Monday, April 15, 2013 13:31
Subject: Margaret Hazlett Announcement
Dear Members of the Bowdoin community,
I am writing to let you know that our exceptionally talented senior associate dean of student affairs, Margaret Hazlett, will be leaving Bowdoin in early June to become dean of the college at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. This is bittersweet news for me personally and for many of you who have worked with Margaret during the past 16 years. While it is always difficult to lose highly respected and well-liked colleagues, this is clearly a wonderful opportunity for Margaret to grow professionally while leading F&M’s student affairs operation.
We will embark immediately on a search for Margaret's replacement. I will chair a search committee with the goal of identifying an exceptionally talented and knowledgeable professional who will help us to continue to enhance student life and the student experience at the College.
We lured Margaret to Bowdoin in the summer of 1997. She was teaching history and working as the director of summer programs at the St. Stephen's & St. Agnes School in Alexandria, Virginia. She had previously served as executive director of the non-profit social service organization “Princeton in Asia” and as an ESL instructor in Japan and Thailand.
At Bowdoin, Margaret spent one year as assistant dean of student affairs before being promoted to a series of increasingly important positions, including dean of first-year students, associate dean of student affairs/dean of first-year students, and finally senior associate dean of student affairs, the role she has served in the past seven years.
Margaret's successes and contributions over her 16 years at Bowdoin are varied and too many to list here in their entirety; however, let me share a few of my favorites that demonstrate her creativity, initiative, and breadth of leadership. Twelve years ago, Margaret initiated Common Good Day, an event that now draws close to 400 students, staff, faculty, and alumni together for a day of service. She brought together a group of directors to create the “student emergency response team," which meets monthly to discuss student issues, professional development training for our staff, and current health and safety trends both on our campus as well as nationally. She began the “Sophomore Series” to help sophomores navigate what can be an awkward second year in college, and she initiated an annual, divisional walking challenge/competition as a fun way for staff to stay healthy during the winter months. This event has now become a campus-wide competition for staff that reveals people’s true personalities in unexpected ways!
Margaret is at her best when she is rethinking the old in creating something new. But she has also been an excellent manager and supervisor running the office of the dean of student affairs on a day-to-day basis, while also overseeing the health center, the counseling center, and children’s center. She has been a wonderful colleague to so many staff and faculty, and we will miss her terrific sense of humor, which is so important in the work we do. I will particularly miss her strength of conviction and the wise counsel and support she has provided to me over the 16 years we have worked together. Most importantly, Margaret has been an exceptional dean for so many students over the years. On Friday, a parent stepped into my office after a difficult meeting with Margaret and said to me, “She is really good!” She certainly is, and F&M is fortunate to have her.
Information will be forthcoming about a public reception to say farewell to Margaret more formally, but for now, please join me in thanking Margaret for her many years of exemplary service to Bowdoin and in wishing her the very best as she begins this exciting new endeavor.
Tim Foster
Dean of Student Affairs