Every week, Talon News interviews a member of the Oklahoma Christian University community, a “Newsmaker,” to answer questions about their role on campus.
On October 13, Talon News interviewed Dean of students, Neil Arter.
Your job often requires you to work outside of the typical nine to five hours, how do you maintain life balance?
“I feel like it’s something that has become a lot easier to figure out as the more years of experience that I have. One of the things that I probably allow myself to do now that I didn’t initially, was I will allow myself to walk out some afternoon at three if I know I’m going to be over here all night. I wouldn’t ever let myself do that when I was younger, just because I thought, ‘Well, I want to always be a team player, and so I want my team to know I’m with them all the way.’ I’ve learned you have to do that sometimes.”
What do you consider the most important part of your job?
“I think the most important part of my job is to not panic in times of crisis. In those times someone must lead calmly, and that doesn’t mean you can’t be emotional, and it doesn’t mean you can’t react. Dr. Jones pushes a narrative to me about not flinching. Not because you don’t want to come off as not tough but because when you’re leading someone, they need to see you composed.”
What is something students often don’t know about your role as dean of students?
“The biggest thing is that since you know your side of the issue really well you think you know all about it. But for many issues that I deal with, students can’t know everything about it. That creates frustration for the students. I wish I could just say ‘Here’s what’s going on,’ But I can’t because that would either be unfair to someone else, or just not the right thing to do. I want to say, ‘Trust me, I got you.’”
How do you see your role evolving in the next five years?
“I would say my planning on growing someone up to take this role. I would want to at least have an idea for them how that could grow and change and who could really step into this role. This is my 26th year as dean of students, and the dean before me was here for 27 years. I think a lot of our policies and ideas are built around the same thing. We want to be in a place where certain things are valued or held high. We want to be around people that build us up for the future.”
How has God used your position as dean of students to change you or your relationship with him?
“Well, I don’t think you can do this position and not grow in your faith. I feel really lucky to be doing what I’m doing. We were sitting in chapel, it was one of those days that was just a really great praise, so I elbowed the guy next to me and said, ‘we get to do this all the time!’ It’s really unreal when you think about it and the number of great people that I’ve been around. The older I get, the more I see the students as qualified examples on how to live out my faith. And, how to operate in my life. Even freshmen, eighteen-year-olds, I find myself learning from them so much better than I did in the beginning when I was closer to their age.”
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