The Dean of Students, Larry Robertson, has an impressive resume and will leave Longwood with big shoes to fill, not that it will be happening soon. Even so, Robertson isn’t done with his work at the university, he wants to keep changing applications and procedures to make things easier for students.
“Things you have to remember; brick and mortar and technology won’t last forever, it’s the people and the memories that make up Longwood University,” said Robertson.
As the Dean of Students, Robertson has a lot of responsibility, helping Residential and Commuter Life (RCL), including developing a class for the residential assistants (RA) to make things better. His constant goal is to make things easier for students, drawing on his own experience as a student of Longwood. After graduating in 1990, Robertson left Longwood to attend James Madison University to pursue a master's degree, finishing in 1992.
“The biggest difference (between student and staff) is you learn that Longwood is not perfect, that there is a reality of a real world,” said Robertson. “I think one of the things we do in our office, and I won’t take full credit, but we remove a lot of red tape for students, make things easier.”
Robertson’s biggest goal is to help students realize their own potential. When he came to college, he discovered that he could be successful in an academic setting and hold a leadership position. Students need a person who will believe in them when they don't believe in themselves; Robertson wants to be there to change a student's mind and to make them see their own potential.
“One of the other things you notice, traditions, a lot of people think are long standing actually aren’t,” said Robertson. “Small things have to change to keep longstanding traditions apparent.”
Plenty of things have changed from when Robertson attended Longwood and in the past 12 years as a he's worked with RCL and other departments on the way to his current deanship. As a Mortar Board alum, he talked about how the famed tradition of Color Wars used to occur on the Sunday of Oktoberfest, now it's on a Friday. When asked, he said the day was changed to attempt and later found successful in bringing more students to the event.
“I think the things that are the same, the Longwood students have been able to make the most of college,” said Robertson. “The huge difference, people know about Longwood. We have people who wouldn’t have known about Longwood 20 years ago.”
Changes to campus are never-ending as an evolving landscape; Robertson said when he was a student, Brock Commons didn’t even exist. Since he graduated 27 years ago, the campus has changed immensely physically in terms of buildings and moreover in academics. But beyond the more visible changes, he said it was harder to accept the changes in people, those who have left either through moving away, or possibly dying.
Robertson said, “I would say something I really want to see changed is our students seeing how much potential they have and take advantage of the opportunities to fail without fear."
