Students, faculty meet dean candidate

Dean of Students candidate Frank Sanchez said he was driven by the way administrators treated students at his alma mater, the University of Nebraska.

He said he felt administrators there didn’t have enough time to sit down with students, and it made him wonder about their role.

“How do administrators get these jobs?” he asked.

Sanchez spoke Monday in the Whittenberger Auditorium to students, faculty and staff.

He is one of the remaining four candidates for the vice provost for student affairs and dean of students position. The successful candidate will replace retiring Dean of Students Dick McKaig.

Sanchez said he became interested in administration after his wrestling career at Nebraska ended. He needed a way to help pay for housing, so he became a residential assistant.

After that, a new world of student leaders and administrators opened up, he said.
“I learned the importance of administration,” Sanchez said.

He said he wants to become IU’s next dean of students to support and advise student leaders while moving forward with the outgoing McKaig’s legacy. These goals are part, he said, of putting the “student experience” first.

Sanchez took questions ranging from his views on alcohol on campus to his experience with the greek system. He spoke about empowering students to make the campus better.

When asked about IU’s alcohol policy, he said IU is a dry campus in policy, and it’s good to curb campus drinking for safety.

“I’ve seen campuses who have not done anything in that way and it’s spun totally out of control,” he said.

But, he said, the way to do it is through students. He said he’d put programs in place where students hold themselves to a higher standard.

Sanchez also answered questions about diversity. He said minorities are “not where they need to be,” adding that the world is losing so many brilliant minds because minorities aren’t getting the support they need. 

“It’s what happens when you put a freshwater fish in a saltwater pond,” Sanchez said.

A solution, he said, is creating programs where students feel comfortable doing research in something having to do with their own cultures. To do that, he said, students need professors who are minorities.

Junior Eric de la Rosa said Sanchez is not just racially diverse. Sanchez has a lot of different ideas on what college is and what it’s supposed to be without focusing on a certain student group, de la Rosa said.

De la Rosa cited philanthropy at the University of Denver as an example of how Sanchez is committed to helping all students and the entire community.

However, some students weren’t pleased with Sanchez.

The candidate didn’t have enough experience working with a greek system, said sophomore Alexander Groysman.

Groysman also said Sanchez seemed uninformed on some of IU’s policies, such as its alcohol policy. He added Sanchez isn’t a proper candidate for the campus as a whole.

Sanchez is qualified in many ways, Groysman said, but it isn’t enough.

“This gap is significant enough, it could cause problems,” Groysman said.