Vice President of Student Life and Dean of Students, Ronald Gray, Ph.D. posing with Brother Jasper.
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By Isaiah Rosario, Sports Editor
Ronald Gray, Ph.D., vice president of student life and dean of students, will be transitioning away from Manhattan College after over a year and a half at the helm of student life leadership, as announced in an email sent from the Office of the President last week.
The main reason Gray decided to transition away from the college was due to him wanting to be more present for his family, especially as his kids are getting older.
Despite his transition away from MC, Gray hopes to continue working with students and making sure they are successful no matter where he goes. He joked in his interview with The Quadrangle, saying that working with students keeps him young and keeps him up to date.
“My team has been freaking amazing,” Gray said. “They’re just high-quality people, high-quality professionals. I can’t say enough about them and how much they love the students and support the students. I love the students and how they’ve embraced me and all the things that they’ve done for me and with us. It’s just an amazing ride.”
Gray told The Quadrangle that he expects to leave his position sometime in the coming months. There is no negative association between the college and Gray as he “treasures every moment of working here.”
During Gray’s tenure at MC, he would have liked to see a couple more things come to fruition. He highlighted the need to see more student organizations develop and grow, such as fraternity and sorority life.
Furthermore, Gray gave praise to the student-athletes within the college. Gray stated that with the amount of work that they put in, they should be celebrated for their accomplishments.
“I just hope that our students, no matter whether it’s soccer, lacrosse, baseball or basketball, that [athletes] continue to engage with athletics because the student-athletes here are phenomenal and they put so much energy into their sport, and we should be able to celebrate them with that and encourage them.”
The email from the President’s Office about Gray’s departure was certainly a surprise to many students on campus, especially those who worked closely with him, such as the members of Gray’s student advisory board.
“I think it’ll have a big impact,” advisory board member Elizabeth Kennedy said about Gray’s departure. “I think by him not being there, the space for everybody to become ‘One Jasper Nation’ as he called it isn’t there anymore. I think that if he was still here, there would be more time to implement these things … it sucks because he was starting to make changes and now it’s just stopped.”
The creation of Gray’s advisory board allowed students to have a role in student life on campus. Another member of the board, Charles Kilpatrick, said that Gray’s ability to listen to people was one of the most impactful parts of Gray’s tenure at the college.
“It’s really remarkable that he can show people that he’s actually listening, whether that was in an advisory board meeting, he’ll ask us for concerns that we have or things that we notice or things that we want to talk about,” Kilpatrick said. “He’s always very receptive to that. It’s really refreshing to see someone that has that ability to be an active listener and to genuinely show their interest in what people present.”
The job position for the role of Vice President of Student Life is currently open for applicants on the college’s website.
Gray wanted to make sure to leave a piece of advice for the next candidate who steps into the position.
“Stay flexible, stay open, work with your colleagues,” Gray said. “Listen to the students and have fun with it. It can be a position where you’re worried about the student’s well-being and you’re worried about making sure that you are complying to laws and all the policies and procedures, but maintain a positive attitude … just get your team together and rely on them and be transparent with them.”
Both Kennedy and Kilpatrick emphasized the need for students to be part of the selection process for the new vice president of student life.
The board members also mentioned initiatives that they would like to see out of the new vice president. A few initiatives that were mentioned were that they would like the future vice president to be more transparent about club budgets and help create a change for freshmen as they transition from high school to college by giving them more resources.
The advisory board members also mentioned initiatives that they would like to see come out of the new vice president, including the vice president having more transparency about club budgets and more resources for freshmen as they transition from high school to college.