Dean of Students moved to the second floor of George Washington Hall.
The Dean of Students Office has changed locations from the ground floor to the second floor of George Washington Hall (GW). The move is a part of larger office relocation in response to the new vacancy in former music building Graves Hall.
Susan Tsao Esty, Dean of Students and Residential Life, explained how the construction of Falls Music Center freed up significant space across campus, prompting campus organizers to reconsider the way various spaces are used. According to Esty, the offices that moved to Graves largely handle administrative functions that students rarely interact directly with.
“Graves has been around for a long time. It’s a beautiful building. [The move] left a vacancy so that people who look at campus design could think about how to best use that space. There was a sense that it would be nice to have as much student activity close to each other so that it’s easy for students to participate in different things and get to different spaces,” said Esty. “That’s why we moved offices out of this building across the street because students don’t use Human Resources or the Business Office or the Comptroller’s Office.”
Despite the recent changes, future plans are not yet set in stone, with there being no major student-facing building changes in the foreseeable future. However, Esty noted the possibility of eventually converting GW into a student center.
“There is some appetite to have more student-focused things in GW,” said Esty. “For instance, if we need more classroom space, then we could move different student-focused things out of other buildings into this building so that it would free up classroom space in other buildings.”
She continued, “What I understand is there’s a desire for there to be a student life hub like, [Paresky] Commons, [the Oliver Wendell Holmes Library], GW, [the Office for Community and Multicultural Development], all in a centralized place in the middle of campus.”
Madelyn Esposito ’27, is one day-student who often spent her free time in Graves Hall. She stated how having a student-focused space could be especially beneficial for day students, who might be stuck on campus with limited places to relax.
“As a day student, it would also be nice if some sort of day student center were set up, as I know I’ve found myself stuck on campus on the weekends before without a place to go due to buildings being closed. We have the lockers and the mailroom area, but they aren’t exactly the best places to take a break or get work done. Day student spaces could also help day students feel more included on campus, knowing that they have their own space they can go back to while on campus like boarders have a dorm,” said Espotio.
One boarder, Daniel Matloff ’28, mentioned that the moving of offices had minimal impacts on PA students. Even though he doesn’t frequent GW, he suggested that having a centralized location for student congregations could be beneficial.
“It’s a good way to use it. It’s really smart to move administration that’s really not important to students further away from main campus so that space on main campus is opened up and free for students to use. It would be really useful. Right now, we have to rely on random spaces on campus. So it would be nice to standardize everything,” said Matloff.
Despite suggesting that the new space could be useful for student congregations, Matloff expressed some skepticism about its practicality as a student hang-out space.
“It would be cool to have a space really dedicated for student life and student happiness, [but] I think many would still remain in the library as their place of congregation, as it’s just a more central location. In the cold winter months, people don’t really want to walk all the way from the quad to GW just to hang out with friends,” said Matloff.
Rosie Pan ’28 agreed that Andover should expand its spaces for students to congregate. She spoke on how communication helps keep students informed about on-campus changes.
“If they are really adding more spaces and clearing up space for the students, I feel like that will have a positive impact overall. I don’t see there being a big change, but I think that it’s a good idea and that the initiative is well meaning,” said Pan.
She added, “[I heard about the Dean of Students office being relocated] but it was just in passing, so I don’t really know most of the details. I would not have known about most of the changes [laid out in the Campus Master Plan] otherwise, so maybe they could send these in an email.”
Editor’s Note: The Office of Physical Plant could not be reached for comment. The Phillipian reached out but did not receive a response.
