P.J. Dickson, director of Class-Based Academic Advising and coordinator of First-Year Academic Programming, will be leaving Brandeis on Friday for his new roles as the assistant dean of Academic Services and the director of the Advising Center at Bentley University.

Dickson also supervises the Roosevelt Fellows academic peer mentoring program and is the academic advisor for students with last names beginning with letters L through Q.
According to Dean of Academic Services Kim Godsoe, a search to fill his position has begun.

"We have a good application pool, and we're starting interviews," she said.

Until the position is filled, students with last names L through Q may see Godsoe or any of the other four class-based advisors, she continued.

According to an email from Dickson, Assistant Director of Class-Based Advising Katie McFaddin and Senior Department Coordinator Talia Abrahams, who have jointly supervised the Roosevelt Fellows program with Dickson this semester, will take over his role with the program.

In an interview with the Justice, Dickson said that some of his "day-to-day responsibilities" in his position at Bentley, which is also located in Waltham, will be the same as he performed at Brandeis. At Bentley, he will "continue to work with students individually as well as support professional advisors as they're doing their work with first-year students," he said. He will also run a peer-advising program "not unlike the Roosevelt Fellows," he added.

Additional responsibilities that he will take on include overseeing Bentley's faculty advising program, Dickson continued.

Dickson first came to Brandeis in 2002 as a full-time student in the U.S. History doctoral program. He has now completed all but the dissertation portion of his Ph.D. degree, he said.

He then began to work part-time with the Office of Student Enrichment Services, one of the two offices that merged to become what is now the Office of Academic Services. During this time, he was also a mentor for Brandeis Liberal Arts Posse, a merit-based scholarship program that has now expanded to include a Science Posse.

Dickson then became the advisor for the first-year class, and transitioned to his current position in 2009, around the time that the advising system shifted from a class-based advising split to the alpha split by last name, he said.

According to Dickson, the position at Bentley is "one of those opportunities that was just too good to pass up."

"It was one of those few things that I would think of leaving Brandeis for and was fortunate to be offered it," he said.

Though excited about his future endeavors, "it is hard to say goodbye to Brandeis," Dickson said.

In an interview, Roosevelt Fellow Maya Jacob '13 said that Dickson has set a "tone of ... work and play" in supervising the program, and Abrahams and McFaddin are "definitely able to bring that" in their work with the Roosevelt Fellows.

Of Dickson, Roosevelt Fellow Margaret Huey '13 said in an interview that, "I really value what he has to say and his techniques in terms of listening and how to be a good and effective advisor."

"[Dickson] gives so much to us [the Roosevelt Fellows program] that it's really rewarding and refreshing to work with him," she added.

Roosevelt Fellow Dave Benger '14 said in an interview, "I think it's hard for the average student at Brandeis to really know how much P.J. does for them, even if they've never come into contact with him."

"He lives and breathes helping students, and he's been a phenomenal asset at Brandeis, and I think he's going to be a phenomenal asset to Bentley, as well," Benger added.