By Twitter user @Suffolk_U
By Twitter user @Suffolk_U

After three decades of change, Stoll steps away

Stoll focuses on fond memories of student achievement, campus development

April 27, 2016

When Nancy Stoll arrived at Suffolk in 1987, students darted in and out of class on the tiny Beacon Hill campus. In the almost three decades since her tenure as dean of students began, Stoll has provided many opportunities to the school’s changing student population.

Stoll, who will retire on June 3, grew the school’s division of student affairs from four departments to 15 at its largest, starting popular initiatives like the Journey Leadership program, the Performing Arts Office, and the Center for Community Engagement, to name a few.

But the school she is leaving has changed dramatically from the one she started at.

By Twitter user @Suffolk_U
By Twitter user @Suffolk_U

“Suffolk is a very different institution now than it was in ‘87 in so many ways that it’s almost a new institution,” said Stoll in an interview with the Journal.

As the university expanded, Stoll worked to provide more educational and professional opportunities to a changing student body.

“The diversity across our multicultural populations has increased enormously over the years I’ve been here, and that’s been a wonderful enrichment to the campus environment in my view,” said Stoll. “It was a very homogeneous student population in the early days, and that has changed in ways that have just been wonderful to see.”

Stoll estimates that there were 125 international students attending Suffolk when she arrived, far less than the current international population of about 1,400.

Even so, Stoll said the biggest cultural change in her years at Suffolk was the school’s transition from a commuter school to a university with a large on-campus student population.

“That was probably the biggest shift that I had a role in managing — in creating a residence life structure, and a system, and a program from scratch,” she said.

Aside from the four residence halls, the school’s Ridgeway building, Rosalie K. Stahl Center and 20 Somerset building have been added to the campus as the school’s Fenton, Archer and Donahue buildings became part of its past. As the campus grew, Stoll was instrumental in making sure Suffolk’s new facilities met its community’s needs.

Courtesy of Moakley Archives & Institute
Courtesy of Moakley Archives & Institute

“It’s been wonderful to have some input into the quality of those facilities and the decisions that were made about how best to make them meet the students interests and provide the kind of space we wanted to see available for them, especially for the ones who are living here,” she said.

As she leaves the university, Stoll is happy that current Senior Associate Dean of Students Ann Coyne will be taking on her role.

“[Coyne] will be an extraordinarily capable and talented dean of students. She’s an alum of the institution, which makes it even better, so she has a great deal of love and loyalty to Suffolk,” said Stoll, noting that Coyne knows the students and community very well from serving in her former capacity for the past 10 years.

“There always are challenges in helping students find ways to get involved in campus life, and in convincing them they need to do that as part of their educational experience and as part of developing leadership skills and other kinds of abilities that will help them as they get along in their career,” said Stoll.

She said some of the areas Coyne will likely focus on include expanding the school’s athletic offerings, promoting new student activity space in the Sawyer building and promoting the many ways students can get involved.

“I imagine she’s going to bring some creative ideas to other ways we can try and do that and present opportunities to students that they will take advantage of and use to enhance their credentials, because we know it makes a difference,” Stoll said of Coyne.

In her time as dean, Stoll said the cooperation from the university’s presidents allowed her and her staff to improve access to opportunities for students.

“I’ve been blessed with a lot of support, a lot of good support from the presidents I’ve worked for, and that’s been wonderful,” said Stoll. “It’s allowed us to be creative, to try new things, to build programs like the Journey Leadership Program and get the support we needed to make those successful, because students really wanted those and have thrived because of them.”

Of  her many accomplishments at Suffolk throughout her career, seeing students who overcame enormous challenges and struggles finally reach commencement are her happiest memories.

“Knowing what they’ve overcome and what they’ve had to work through to earn their degree and seeing that happen is just a huge, proud moment, not just for me, but for all the staff in student affairs,” Stoll said.

As new generations of students enter Suffolk and find their place in the community, they will benefit from the network of programs she helped put into place.

“I think one of the reasons that I stayed here all these years was because I felt an attachment to the student body. I felt like the work we were doing was making a difference for students,” Stoll said. “It’s been my pleasure to be able to do whatever I have been able to accomplish that has made campus life a rich experience for the students that have come through here.”

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