Renee Dana, the Executive Assistant to the Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty, recently earned her Masters of Science in Higher Education Administration degree from Southern New Hampshire University.

She explains the focus of her studies throughout the program was the faculty relationship to changes and the process to garner agreement and participation. “Throughout my classes, I was the student challenging classmates on how their proposed processes would be implemented, as many of my classmates were new to higher education or had student perspectives on processes.” 

Renee previously earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Maine at Farmington in Business Economics and a minor in Psychology.

Her final paper tackled the topic of the implementation of a change to the general education requirement of a small liberal arts college. Conversations at Bates centering on various graduation requirements and ways to ease paths for students to complete their studies inspired her research for the paper. She created a fictitious institution (lovingly named Dana College) and set a two year deadline for all changes required for this shift. This implementation required an institutional pause and shift in thinking to meet the needs of career-focused enrolled students. Among the obstacles for Dana College, Renee found, was that the required changes in advising, major declaration, and course restrictions challenged many institutional norms.

She encourages others to continue their studies and knows the research completed for this degree will be of benefit to her work at Bates. Renee feels the degree was, “a credentialing of all the work I have done in my years and years of administrative work in higher education spanning three institutions. The work for the degree provided another side of what goes into budgeting, conflict management, marketing, and admissions.” She also credits the expertise of those around campus in expanding her understanding of topics in our real world setting. In particular, Leigh Weisenburger, Dre Gauger, and Gwen Lexow were immeasurably helpful throughout several courses and she appreciated support from colleagues and friends. She also credits much of her degree success, “to my loving partner, Michael, who spent many Thursdays and Sundays reminding me that I had important work to do.”