Updated as of 6:21 p.m. on April 27 to include additional quotes from Whitney Gregory and information about the candidate search.
Whitney Gregory will serve as Elon’s next dean of students following a confidential candidate search. This was announced to faculty and staff in an email from Jon Dooley, vice president of student life, on April 17.
Gregory, the current assistant dean of students, will step into her new role this summer, after current dean of students, Jana Lynn Patterson, begins her new role as the associate vice president and dean of student health and well-being. Patterson has worked at Elon for 39 years and will retire in 2026, after serving in a new capacity.
During Gregory’s presentation to Elon faculty, staff and students before being selected for the role, she said some of her main priorities as the next dean of students would be to focus on relationships with students and making data-informed decisions
“I’ll be sitting at new tables to understand more deeply about senior level decisions occurring at Elon and contributing to those,” Gregory told Elon News Network. “I’m excited to listen to connect closely with student government and lead that group and advise that group.”
Gregory was one of three candidates and was the only internal candidate for this role. She has worked at Elon for 18 years. It is not uncommon for Elon to pick an internal candidate for dean searches, Jon Dooley, vice president for student life, said. Two of the four most recent dean searches ended in internal candidates.
“It is certainly a testament to the things that are happening here at Elon that that search led back here to our own campus,” Dooley said.
This search differed from all four previous dean searches, as this was the only one that was confidential. However, Dooley said that this is not uncommon to do in candidate searches.
“You want to be able to try to attract somebody, if you can, who is in a job that they really love and that they enjoy, and that they are able to be a part of a search and to explore the possibility without negatively affecting their current work on their current campus,” Dooley said.
An example Gregory gave of how she has previously used student feedback to create change was in 2016 regarding medical withdrawals. In 2016, Gregory said if students took a medical withdrawal for any reason, their email address was then deactivated, their classes for the next semester if they had registered were dropped and their housing.
“They were coming back from an already difficult experience then to a difficult experience on campus,” Gregory said. “Now I want to share this was not intentional. When we talk about these experiences, it took students speaking up and sharing.”
The search for the dean was chaired by Randy Williams, vice president for inclusive excellence, and Jason Husser, assistant provost for academic excellence and integrity. Williams said while the committee worked to facilitate the process of candidates visiting campus, the committee did not decide who would be the next dean of students, their role was to give feedback and thoughts on the candidates to Dooley.
Even though Williams did not make the decision on who would be the next dean of students, he said the pool of candidates was highly qualified and she was a strong candidate amongst the group.
“She has the historical knowledge, she has experience, she has the expertise to be in such a role,” Williams said. “So I’m looking forward to seeing what she’s going to do in that role and supporting her success, because it’s an important role, and I think that her success will be student success as well.”
Dooley said following feedback provided from the committee, Gregory was the strongest candidate.
“It was clear that her institutional knowledge, her compassionate response to student concerns when they arise, that her advocacy for students were differentiators for her candidacy,” Dooley said.
Gregory said after listening to what students in this position were saying, she was able to partner with the dean of students and with the academic affairs department and change the process.
“Let's change this process,” Gregory said. “Let's make this better. Because when a student has had a personal and family emergency, the last thing we want to do is create another barrier for them.”
Gregory also emphasized that when she makes data-informed decisions, this is slightly different from data-driven decisions as data does not always provide the full picture of what Elon’s students need. An example Gregory gave of this is the idea of putting a food pantry on Elon’s campus to help combat food insecurity. There has been success at other universities, yet Gregory said when specifically looking at what Elon needs are, a food pantry might not be the best solution.
“What I've heard from students on this campus, at least undergraduate students, is one, I have dietary needs that maybe can't be met by a food pantry — whether it's cultural, whether it's religious, whether it's health related needs,” Gregory said. “Also I feel shame and embarrassment going into a food pantry.”
During Gregory’s presentation, she was also asked questions from Elon faculty, staff and students, including from a member of Elon’s Student Government Association who asked her about any past experiences advising or working with student organizations similar to SGA.
“It's not just about me advising,” Gregory said. “Where do you see opportunities for growth? Where do you see problems that you want to fix? And how can we work together to identify solutions and identify ways to effectively move something forward?”
As part of the job description for the modified position of dean of students includes advising SGA. Gregory said while she has not previously advised SGA, she has worked with other student organizations, including a fraternity, and she said the mentorship of working with student organizations is something she values — and she sees this relationship as a two-way street.
“I think our students have maybe more power than they know, and stronger voices than maybe they’ve used in the past,” Gregory told Elon News Network. “I look forward to helping them elevate those voices and think about ways that they can communicate their interests and their priorities, so that we can push forward their goals, quickly and effectively and connecting with the different people around Elon who can make change happen in very streamlined ways.”
Gregory said beyond SGA, she is looking to get to know different students and student organizations across campus as she prepares to step into her new role.
“I’ve found over the years that the more we know one another on a human level, the deeper the trust is to be able to share those experiences that people may feel embarrassed about or feel ashamed about or just wonder if their experience was normal or was a typical experience,” Gregory told Elon News Network. “It’s through those conversations that I found in my experience, we identify sometimes gaps in systems and gaps in processes where it didn’t work well for students, and we have an opportunity to make it work so much better."