Dear Members of our Student Community:

It is both a pleasure and an honor to serve as your Dean of Students. As Claremont Graduate University’s Vice Provost for Student and Enrollment Services as well as Dean of Students, I’d like to draw your attention to the word “services” in the title, a word that the dictionary defines as both “a helpful act” and a “contribution to the welfare of others.”

By placing service at the core of our mission, we believe that, if we can provide you with the best support, information, and resources while you are studying at CGU, you will have the best chance to succeed throughout your academic endeavors. And ultimately, that is what we want for you—success while here in graduate school and, from that well-built foundation, success thereafter, both professionally and personally.

Although I have only been at CGU for a little over a year, I arrive with over three decades of experience in serving student needs. I feel well versed in the rhythms of a graduate student’s life—its rigors, challenges, and stresses, which may be intellectual, social/emotional, or financial. I strongly encourage you to have an open dialogue with me and all the members of our student services team, asking questions, sharing issues you encounter, and taking advantage of all the services we have to offer. Those services run the gamut: from administrative (admission, financial aid, registration, and student accounts) to the professional (career management, the Writing Center, and a new “Preparing Future Faculty” program to be launched in 2013) to the more personal (religious life, mental and physical health services). The combination of all of these essential support services helps you maintain balance and optimal performance. Whether you have received such support in the past or feel that you are only now in need, we encourage you to build relationships with those on our staff who are trained to help.

I’d like to personally thank you for choosing CGU, a very special institution with over 85 years of graduate-only training for tomorrow’s leaders in business, education, social sciences, arts and humanities, information systems, math sciences, and more recently, public health/policy. I hope that all your experiences here in Claremont and the metro Los Angeles area will positively reinforce the important decision you have made to join us. As the weeks and months progress, I hope to get to know many of you by name—and, in turn, want you to know that I will always be an advocate for your success. We welcome all of you, collectively representing a wonderfully broad spectrum of socioeconomic, ethnic, geographic, and cultural backgrounds.

Please remember that my door will (almost!) always be open, both in Harper East and at my campus residence.

Best wishes,

Fred Siegel