No lone Wolfe
For Thomas Wolfe, Syracuse University isn’t just a workplace – it’s where his family is.
His eldest daughter graduated three years ago, his youngest is currently a junior and his wife is working on a master’s degree in social work. Further back, his grandfather attended Syracuse at the beginning of the 20th century. And when his daughter got married to a fellow Syracuse alumnus last October, the ceremony took place in Hendricks Chapel.
Wolfe has been part of the Syracuse community for 18 years, beginning as the Protestant chaplain and serving as dean of Hendricks Chapel since 1998. He earned his Ph.D. in higher education at SU in 1995. This summer, Chancellor Nancy Cantor offered Wolfe the position of senior vice president and dean of student affairs.
‘I’m very excited,’ Wolfe said of his new role at SU. ‘I’m very glad to be at this end of the process, and very glad we have the new leadership in place.’
Wolfe’s office encompasses duties formally held by Anastasia Urtz, Jeannette Steffes and Juanita Williams as associate vice president and dean of students, vice president for student affairs and associate dean of students, respectively. The three were terminated by the university on June 3. With Wolfe serving as the leader of the Division of Student Affairs, the restructuring streamlines upper-level positions.
The division now contains three main branches – health and wellness, student learning and inclusion and community and citizenship, all of which have individual directors under Wolfe.
‘These groups will really nurture us, as part of the essence of student affairs,’ Wolfe said.
Though different than Hendricks, Wolfe feels confident the newly structured division can become a collaborative force within the university. His familiarity with the campus has already proven very helpful, he said, in getting the division off and running. With assorted new directors, having a leader who is known in the campus community is a benefit to the division’s success.
In terms of how he’d like to see the division and university progress, Wolfe said he’s excited by the idea of Scholarship in Action and how it can change not only the way the university works, but the landscape of higher education.
‘The whole notion of the university being present in the world, and the world being so present in the university, will strengthen not just what we know, but who we are,’ he said.
In his temporary office in the Schine Student Center, a lone plane propeller hangs above his desk. ‘My favorite item,’ he calls it. Wolfe learned to fly when he was 16, and enjoys opportunities to fly small, private planes or jets.
‘I got back into it this year,’ he said.
He calls his family ‘a sailing family.’ They take trips to Lake Ontario and the Finger Lakes region – some of his favorite places to be.
When referencing Syracuse, Wolfe doesn’t follow the ideology of ‘life on the Hill.’ Rather, he says it’s more important to have a relationship with the world around you if only to learn something more about yourself.
‘I don’t use in my language anymore, ‘life on the Hill,” he said. ‘I think what we’re seeing is an old history of elitism. I think the boundaries of the university have changed.’
In his tenure as dean of Hendricks, Wolfe was instrumental in making the chapel community a close one. When he began his role as dean, the number of people who walked through the doors each year fell between 30,000 and 35,000. Now, it’s between 65,000 and 70,000, said Sue Martini, senior secretary at Hendricks.
‘I was here at the chapel when he was Protestant chaplain,’ Martini said. ‘And the students loved him even then. He had a good following and an active congregation. Then when he became dean, he just very quickly assumed the responsibilities of that position.’
Wolfe’s leadership allowed Hendricks to become a place to resolve conflict, she said, whether it was during union issues, panel discussions or even when HillTV was shut down in 2005.
The chapel serves as a welcoming environment for any faith, and it was Wolfe’s goal as dean to build relationships between the different communities who gathered within its walls.
He organized interfaith trips for students for the past two years – one to Spain and one to Turkey – for Christian, Muslim and Jewish students to come together and travel during Spring Break to a destination where their faiths intertwined. A third trip to Israel and Palestine is planned for this spring.
Kelly Sprinkle, former Protestant chaplain and current interim dean of Hendricks, considers Wolfe both a friend and mentor who is valued and loved by staff and students alike.
‘What I’ve always valued about Tom is his strong commitment to cooperation among diverse groups,’ he said. ‘Interfaith work, folks who may have no faith or on a spiritual journey, all people are welcome. He always talked about the open doors of the chapel.’
Ever modest, Wolfe smiles a nervous smile when asked about his accomplishments so far at SU. His proudest moments are derived from times of conflict when both groups come out with a deeper understanding of each other.
‘For me, that is the most satisfying day at work,’ he said.
Published on September 3, 2008 at 12:00 pm
