4 residential colleges welcome new DSLs

This school year began with a changing of the guard among residential college directors of student life, with new faces in Whitman, Butler, Rockefeller and Forbes colleges.

Taking over for Christina Davis, who is now the program director at the Fields Center, new Whitman Director of Student Life Devon Wessman-Smerdon ’05 has a strong Princeton background.

An art history concentrator, performer and Student Volunteers Council leader as an undergraduate, Wessman-Smerdon interned in marketing at McCarter Theatre after graduation where she often collaborated with students. She then worked as the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students’ first program director, helping to start the sophomore “Halftime Retreat” before earning a master’s degree in higher education from Harvard University.

When Wessman-Smerdon saw the open director of student life position at Princeton, she was ecstatic. “Having been in Princeton for nine years, I was looking for a change, but of course as soon as I left I realized how much I missed Princeton and love so many things about this campus and town and community,” she said.

Observing a Princeton class one decade her junior, Wessman-Smerdon said she is impressed with some of the changes in student life, particularly in the development of the four-year residential college system.

“I remember I lived in Spelman in junior and senior year when they were breaking ground [on Whitman College],” she said. As an independent student, she said, she felt the lack of upperclassmen involvement with younger students.

Now, she hopes to support continued junior and senior involvement in the Whitman College Council and in other areas of student life. “I am just enjoying learning from the students, the Whitman staff and others who make the Whitman community what it is,” she said.

Though new to Princeton and Butler College, Director of Student Life Alexis Andres said she already takes pride in her new residential college. “When I came and interviewed at Butler, it was clear to me that Butler was the best,” she added.

Andres was mostly recently the assistant dean of the college and graduate school at the University of Virginia, where she received her B.A. in foreign affairs and Ph.D. in higher education administration. Her dissertation work focused on the study of female undergraduate students and their “pursuit of effortless perfection,” as she puts it, using studies created by then-Duke University president and current Princeton professor Nan Keohane.

At UVA, she participated in Sustained Dialogue, a program founded at Princeton, and said she hopes to work with the SD group on campus as well as implement and enhance other Butler programs. Andres also plans to pinpoint what more students want from their residential college experience. “Some students are really good about saying, ‘This is what I want to see,’ but other students might be less assertive,” she said.

As Butler RCA Ewon Baik ’13 said, “I didn’t know that directors of student life were actually this involved with student life,” citing Andres’ long hours on campus and Butler spirit during RCA training. She added that, “Even though she is new to this particular job, you can tell she has similar experience under her belt, and I feel more than comfortable approaching her with any questions I may have.”

Amy Ham Johnson, the new director for student life in Rockefeller College, has held various positions at Sacred Heart University, Haverford College and Hamline University and is a Ph.D student in organizational leadership, policy and development at the University of Minnesota.

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“I chose Princeton because of its residential college system, and the multi-layers of support and programming that they offer their students,” Johnson explained, adding, “Plus, I certainly could not turn down the opportunity to be a part of Rocky!”

Self-described as always “with a Diet Coke in hand,” the native Georgian said she loves to travel — her current stated goal is to visit every state in the United States. She currently boasts 41. In addition, Johnson said she and her husband enjoy attending concerts by artists such as Vampire Weekend when she is not learning more about Princeton student life and working on her dissertation about the impact college internships have on the post-graduation job search.

College Master Jeff Nunokawa praised Johnson’s work so far, saying, “We’re all so very psyched here at Rockefeller College to have Amy working with us. She’s gotten off to an outstanding start!”

Lyra Plumer GS is Forbes’ new acting director of student life, replacing former Dean Lesley Nye, who accepted an offer to become a dean at California Institute of Technology over the summer. With only two weeks to find a replacement before RCA training began, Cole Crittenden, the associate dean in ODUS, recommended Plumer after her work as an RGS and as the residential coordinator for the Freshman Scholars Institute in 2010.

Plumer, who is facing her final year as a graduate student in the English department, says that she is putting aside her dissertation and other work to be the Acting Director of Student Life. “This job is the one that I’ve wanted since I was a Resident Graduate Student, or even longer than that, since I started teaching precepts here and got to know the students.”

She added that “teaching here is like teaching in heaven,” and that she is excited to continue to work closely with college students outside the classroom. Though she is a certified teacher in New Jersey and has taught in middle and high school classrooms, Plumer said she believes that working with Princeton students is her true calling.

“It’s an hour-long commute, but as I drive home at 10 p.m. I’m still grinning,” she said.