In an effort to consolidate departments and streamline services, Dean of Student Life Rick Sawyer was promoted to associate vice president for student affairs in July by Vice President of Students and Enrollment Jean Eddy.Eddy said she wanted to place all departments which deal directly with student life under Sawyer's control. She said it was ineffective for a few of these departments to report to her and the rest to Sawyer.

As dean of Student Life, Sawyer directed Residence Life, Student Development and Conduct, Student Activities, Student Centers, Orientation, Community Service, Graduate Student Services and the Intercultural Center.

Now, Sawyer is in charge of four additional departments - the Health Center, the Counseling Center, the Athletic Department and the Chaplaincy. Before, these departments reported to Eddy.

"I kept hearing this from everyone involved, that [these departments] needed to be all together," Eddy said.

Sawyer said one purpose of his promotion was to ensure that all of the departments which deal directly with students promote the six core values of Brandeis - citizenship, integrity, respect, civility, lifelong learning, and embracing diversity.

While Sawyer said the new departments placed under him after were not doing anything wrong to be placed under his control, he said, "I think my role is going to be to try and establish some commonality among all of us and for us to have a common philosophical approach."

According to Sawyer, his promotion means he will double the amount of people who report directly to him from around 30 to 60. Afterward, Sawyer will report to Eddy.

"It's not a demotion for [the departments]," Sawyer said. "We feel this will better serve students and probably, in some ways, profitable for students service-wise."

In an all campus e-mail sent by Eddy last semester, she said: "It has been clear for some time that there are departments within the Students and Enrollment division that require a closer connection with the world of student life."

Eddy said she asked Sawyer to bring to them his same "talent" and "commitment" which he displayed as dean.

"When I first went to Rick, about a year ago, he said to me 'I really like being Dean of Student Life,'" Eddy said.

After Eddy asked Sawyer to accept her promotion, he declined to remain as dean for the rest of last year. Eddy said she continued to tell Sawyer, "Rick, I really need to promote you."

"I was going to promote him because he was the best person for this job, and he could still be the dean of Student Life, which was very important to him," Eddy said.

"He likes that job. He is very good at it. But I think that all his new responsibilities only complement that."

Sawyer said that when Eddy asked him to accept the promotion, he did not want to decline and decided to take the job because it would improve campus life.

Since Eddy is no longer overseeing some Student Life departments, she said she can now focus on projects such as building a new advising model for campus - which she says will give each student multiple people to turn to for help and advice on all issues.

She said she also plans on strengthening the Hiatt Career Center.

Eddy said that she spent last year working on a number of projects, and that at the end of the year, she felt she should ask Sawyer to accept his promotion again.

Sawyer said he can already sense positive changes in his staff meetings between all of the departments now reporting to him.

"We had a meeting with the directors of all the departments under me, and it was electric in a way," Sawyer said.

"The fact that we [all nine groups now under Sawyer] are all going to be meeting regularly is very exciting," Sawyer said.

While Sawyer said he is excited about being able to help the University even more, he said he hopes it does not impact the amount of time he can spend with students.