To fill the position of seven day dean, Marcus Hansen came at the beginning of the second semester after Michael Collins ‘12, the previous seven day dean, left to enter nursing school.
Hansen has a background in sports through baseball and journalism. He covered sports for the “Douglas County Post Gazette” for six months and played for the Omaha Blackshirts right out of college. He then went on to coach and mentor kids in baseball. Even after going through these different fields, the shift to dean has been a challenge for him.
“It’s been quite a bit of a learning curve, and I feel like I’m a freshman in high school,” he said. I’m getting to know everyone, and I’m still getting to know everything.”
While the role of a seven day dean is not a simple job to take on, seven day students are accepting of the new dean.
“He is a nice guy who wants to hear the students’ opinions and thoughts,” Kevin Kim ‘22 said. “He is also more involved and participates with students, which is much more interesting.”
Through one on one discussions, Hansen made it known to all the seven day boarders that he was there for them. He wants to get to know more about each and every person. Hansen even arranged events like paintball and basketball games for the boarders to partake in.
“I’m trying to do more events on campus and make life easier for the seven days. I fight for them heavily,” he said.
Hansen implemented some of his own ideas when connecting with the boarders. Intertwining his own ideas into the already established boarding system gives the seven day boarders a new experience.
“I’m not a dean looking to write you up. I’m almost like an older brother who you haven’t seen in 15 years and wants to just sit down and talk and catch up on everything,” he said.
Making himself open to the boarders, trying not to punish, rewarding good behavior, and wanting to connect with the students and form relationships was Hansen’s true focus and goal as a dean.
Dean of students Dave Cormier looks for good character, leadership, and maturity when hiring a new dean. The dean of the seven day students needs an expansive set of skills.
“I hired him because of his experience working with kids, mentoring outside of work, and his maturity and life experience,” Cormier said.
