Student Affairs Division
The Student Affairs Division of Gustavus Adolphus College intentionally creates and supports environments in which students pursue a challenging liberal arts education, gain an understanding of themselves and each other, and uphold the mission, traditions and values of the College.
We ask students to be invested, contributing members in a community of learners from diverse backgrounds. To this end, we encourage students to recognize, engage and appreciate their own and others’ diversity and commonality. We also espouse citizenship, integrity, respect and compassion as foundations that help students engage in lives of services and leadership in their communities.
Our work is centered on relationships. We collaborate with students, faculty, staff and members of the greater community to provide programs, services and experience that contribute to student learning and positively impact the developmental process. We embrace the teachable moments in students’ lives with appropriate presence, care, reflection, challenge and support. We encourage them to take responsibility to for learning, actions and selves.
As teachers and learners, we contribute to the Gustavus experience, and, with our colleagues, seek to inspire in our students a commitment to the values of excellence, community, justice, service and faith.”
Consistent with the statement of mission, the entire student affairs staff assists students in realizing their education and personal goals at Gustavus.
Jeffrey L. Stocco
Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students
Dean of Students
The Dean of Students Office oversees programs and services that support students' education and development both inside and outside the classroom.
Members of the Dean's staff guide, support, and challenge students in taking full advantage of a Gustavus education. They also provide advice, support and assistance to students and student groups and respond to inquiries from students, parents, and others about college policies and procedures.
Alcohol/Drug Education
The office of Alcohol/Drug Education is available to provide students with education and support in making behavioral choices, especially regarding the use of alcohol and other drugs, to assist in the development of personal skills, to promote healthy lifestyles and to contribute to the development of a sense of community. Services available include consultation, assistance, referral, intervention and assessment. Students also staff the Peer Assistants
Career Center
The Career Center helps students focus on their futures by offering information, opportunity and support in the career development and job search process. Career counseling is helpful for students seeking to identify their interests, skills and values in relation to their selection of major and career. Internships are available for career exploration and the application of classroom learning to the work environment. Students may spend a January Term, semester or summer at internship sites throughout the region and the country earning academic credit in any academic major. The Career Center also assists students who seek a career in the health professions by providing advising, workshops, and assistance with the application process. As students near graduation, they may work with Career Center staff to seek employment, entrance to graduate school or other opportunities. In addition to bringing recruiters to campus, providing directories and participating in job fairs, the Career Center helps students develop their own career search skills.
Community Service Center
The Community Service Center serves as an active link between Gustavus students and service opportunities in St. Peter and surrounding communities. A recipient of multiple governors’ Student Service Awards, the Center focuses on fostering student leadership in its programs; reflecting with students on the connections between service, values, and civic responsibility; and linking classroom knowledge with service experience when applicable.
The Center coordinates one-time events each semester, works with professors on service-learning classes, sponsors programs in the community, and maintains social justice and service resources for student research.
Counseling Center
The Counseling Center works to foster the mental health and well-being of the Gustavus community. To achieve this, staff psychologists provide an array of high-quality services to students, administrators faculty and staff: individual and group counseling for students experiencing personal, emotional, or psychological difficulties; developmental programming for students, student organizations, residence halls, residential life staff and others requesting such services; consultation services for all members of the Gustavus community; and crisis intervention.
Diversity Development and Multicultural Programs
The Diversity Center is open to all students. It supports a community that continues to explore the issues clustered under the umbrella of diversity. Through its cultural, education, social and global awareness programs, it helps the College community embrace and celebrate a pluralistic community. It seeks to create a critical mass of students and faculty that will prepare and support students to function as passionate and conscientious members of a changing and complex world.
The Center is involved in many programs that help our community nurture student leadership. The Center is open to all students who strive to learn from individual experience in order to build a stronger Gustavus community. It serves as a resource to the entire campus and the St. Peter community at large.
Health Service
The Health Service aims to meet healthcare and health education needs of students. Two certified mid-level practitioners and two nurses are on duty Monday through Friday from 8 am until 4:30 pm with extended hours until 6:30 pm on Mondays and Thursdays while school is in session. A registered dietitian is also available for consultations and appointments.
Illness and injury assessment and treatment, physical examinations, laboratory testing, and immunizations are available at Health Service during office hours. Should students require hospitalization they are sent to the River's Edge Hospital (located in St. Peter). If medical care is required when Health Service is not open, students can be seen at the St. Peter Clinic, the Daniels Clinic, or the River's Edge Hospital Urgent Care.
Residential Life
The Residential Life program complements and supports the academic mission of the College by providing a living environment conducive to learning; a comfortable home where students can sleep, study and interact; and a community where the can further develop relationships and personal values and responsibility.
The Office of Residential Life manages all aspects of campus housing including room assignments, room changes and hall maintenance. The profession staff is available to students for personal counseling and mediation, and is responsible for the recruitment, training and performance of all residential staff and, through them, for hall programming.
Campus Safety
The Department of Campus Safety seeks to prevent and suppress crime, protect life and property, preserve peace and respond to requests for safety and security services. Officers are involved daily with enforcement of federal, state, and College rules and regulations; monitoring the campus for unwelcome intruders and situations that threaten the security of any element of the College; rendering appropriate emergency assistance as needed; and monitoring fire and environmental safety concerns. The department also performs outreach by conducting training programs for campus groups on general and personal topics of safety and security; presenting fire prevention activities and performing fire safety inspections; participating in continuing education and crime prevention programs; and active involvement in extra event staffing and special assignments.
Student Activities Office
The Student Activities Office serves the campus as a resource for student leadership in over 100 campus clubs and organizations. The Director and Assistant Director of Student Activities work with leaders of various groups and other students to develop high-quality programs and activities for the campus. The Campus Activities Board plans over 175 social, educational and recreational events each year. Students learn to assess interests, develop plans and budgets and coordinate and promote their plans with others. This office also operates the campus information desk and Ticket Center. Student Activities provides oversight for the fraternity and sorority system and acts to ensure compliance with College expectations as well as to promote and support the realization of goals consistent with the mission of the college.