Quinnipiac’s administration has brought in Michael Miller, interim assistant dean of student affairs and director of campus life. He is ready to hit the ground running.
The former Assistant Dean of Student Affairs and Director of Campus Life Daniel Brown abruptly left the Quinnipiac community in early October. He had been working at Quinnipiac since 2003 and was a strong presence on campus.
Campus Life hosted a meet-and-greet to provide an opportunity for student leaders to connect with Miller and get to know the interim Assistant Dean of Student Affairs that they would be working closely with.
Miller worked at Quinnipiac over a decade ago in a similar position to the one he temporarily holds now. Since then he has traveled the country as a guest speaker for various groups at different colleges and universities or holding interim positions similar to the one he is in now.
“It feels as if I never left, and it’s wonderful. My DNA matches Quinnipiac’s, it’s always been a fit for me personally and professionally,” Miller said.
Miller was brought back to Quinnipiac after all those years to fill a position that was suddenly left vacant by Daniel Brown’s absence.
Miller says as soon as he got the call that his help was needed in early October, it only took him ten days to get his things in order and arrive in Hamden, eager to come back to a community he has always loved.
“I worked at six colleges and universities, the best years of my career on campus were spent at Quinnipiac,” Miller said. “I say that with no diss to my other colleges that I worked at and without hesitation. The best years of my work life on campus were at Quinnipiac.”
As for what his plans are during his time at Quinnipiac, Miller says his main goals are to support Campus Life staff, to help find someone who is the best fit to permanently take over this position and to support students to make sure things run smoothly and students get what they need from his office.
“Ultimately, [to goal is] that students will always think of Quinnipiac as a place that helped make their dreams come true when they were college student,” he said. “That’s the beautiful part of campus life, is that students create this.”
Miller emphasized his focus on wanting to help support Quinnipaic students and help them create the best environment possible, since he advises student run organizations.
One of his major responsibilities is advising the Student Government Association. This involves helping them remain fiscal responsibility and simply being there to answer questions and offer advice to the students involved.
Miller believes all students should have the resources and information they need to get involved, which would involve setting up a place for students with questions to go in the Student Center to find their answers.
When asked about Daniel Brown’s absence and the reason why he was brought to Quinnipiac, Miller replied ‘no comment’ and reported he was not at liberty to speak on personnel issues.
“I know Daniel Brown separately from Quinnipiac, I know him from the field of higher education, and I’ve always had nothing but great respect for him and for the work that he’s done here,” Miller said.
Miller wants to reassure the student body he isn’t trying to hide anything, and doesn’t believe the Quinnipiac administration is either.
“Everyone just assumes everyone knows everything, but I don’t know much, and I’m okay with that when it comes to people’s work life,” he said.
Senior Amanda DiFederico believes the student body deserves a simple explanation, just so there isn’t any confusion after.
“I just think that if you’re going to leave a campus where you’re really well-known it’s probably best to even give like a vague explanation why,” DiFederico said. ” You don’t have to give a lot of details but just enough so that later on, we’re not doing things like this, circulating questions and comments like that.”
Senior Ciara Divita agrees that there should be some kind of statement released by the school.
“I think it’s kind of odd that Quinnipiac hasn’t released a statement about Daniel Brown leaving Quinnipiac or why he’s left,” Divita said. “It seems like they should be taking it more seriously because he was such a prominent face on campus and I’m sure students miss his absence and would like to be informed why he is gone so suddenly.”
