My Lamppost

I have been fortunate to have had the opportunity to interact with some truly amazing individuals throughout my life.  At the very top of that list, I would put Dr. M.L. “Cissy” Petty.  “DP”, as her students affectionately call her, was my dean of students while I was a student at St. Lawrence University in upstate NY.  My first interaction with Cissy was during an accepted student visit day program where she sat down with all of the prospective students and gave each of us a thimble.  I remember the speech as if it were yesterday.  She told us that if we could fill this little thimble with “love, happiness, and respect we would never lack for anything.”  The thimble that she gave me still sits on my desk and has followed me for 6 years.             

While a student at St. Lawrence, Cissy continuously challenged me to step up and become the leader that she knew I could be, even when I didn’t.  She encouraged me to join the student government, a role in which I was able to be a part of a team that really wanted to make a difference on campus and implement new changes for the student body.  Cissy was always willing to lend an ear to us and guide us in the appropriate direction.  She never hesitated to support us with her considerable clout when an issue arose that the student body was passionate about.  It was that dedication that helped her to win the admiration and respect of almost every single student who crossed her path.   

Cissy is not one to accept the status quo.  She really wanted to get to know ALL of her students on a more personal basis.  It was with that in mind that she actually moved into a residence hall for three days.  I don’t know of any other dean of students who would be willing to give up her own home to move back into a residence hall and live like a student (including using the communal bathrooms and laundry facilities).  This seemingly small gesture had a huge impact on so many people.  I remember sitting in her residence hall room with her and seeing students stop and stare when they saw her in the room.  She, in turn, would invite them in and engage with them, helping students to see that this upper-level administrator truly was interested in meeting students on their ground rather than simply staying in her office.  Aside from this, every other Sunday evening, Cissy would open up her own home to students for an informal program called “That’s Life: Chats with the Dean” where all students were welcome to stop in for desserts and to talk about current issues on campus or in the world.  I never missed a “That’s Life” and there was a steady group of about 30 of us who always were in attendance in addition to another 10-20 who varied each week.  These conversations let us see Cissy as a real person and not just as an administrator.  It was these types of moments where she took the initiative to get out and meet students that helped so many of us realize that we did have a role model and ally that we could turn to when something was going on in our lives. 

For me, it wasn’t simply that Cissy supported me as a student that made the difference; rather, it was that she supported me as a PERSON that solidified our relationship.  During my first year at St. Lawrence, my father was diagnosed with prostate cancer, and it was Cissy who, almost daily, either wrote to me, or stopped me while on campus to see how I was doing.  During my junior year, I was struggling with my “coming out” process, and Cissy was the person that I turned to.  I remember staying in her home one night after a “That’s Life” program and just started tearing up.  She knew what I was struggling with, even though I didn’t flat out tell her for another year and a half.  She always supported me and challenged me to be comfortable being the person that I am, something that without her guidance and love, I know I wouldn’t have been able to do. 

What I have loved most about our relationship is that it simply wasn’t limited to my time as a student.  Since graduating from St. Lawrence, I have attended graduate school to work on my Master’s Degree in College Student Personnel Administration, allowing me the opportunity to enter the field of Student Affairs.  I attribute this decision completely to Cissy and helping me to realize that I could indeed make a living while working with students, something I have been passionate about since I was in high school dreaming of being a teacher.  Over the past three years, even though we haven’t seen each other on a daily basis, we keep in regular e-mail contact, and have caught up at conferences where she always makes the time for us to have one-on-one time and to talk about the same types of things we did at “That’s Life,” only this time, it’s not as student-staff, it’s as friends, which has been, hands-down, the best experience of my life. 

Cissy Petty has a passion for working with others that has influenced so many lives over the course of her career.  I speak as one of those lives when I say that I know without a doubt, that my life has been made all the better for having gotten to know this energetic, committed, and truly inspiring woman who has always been in my corner, helping me along, learning from mistakes, and learning to become a better person, something that she always knew I was capable of being, even when I didn’t.  I only hope that as I enter the same field as Cissy, that I will be able to help HALF as many students that she has.  She truly is one-in-a-million.

 - Adam Casler

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The following essay is about Dean Cissy Petty, a lifelong Student Affairs officer. It’s written by a former student of hers and bears witness to the fact that, oftentimes, the least known among us are the most influential.

She’s done this numerous times before. It hasn’t changed in the past 15 years. But the reality today is this, I have never done it before, and I am nervous, very nervous. I know I don’t need to be, but for some reason I am.

“Name? asks the young man behind the counter, who does not look much older than me.

“Danielle, Danielle Weaver”

“Danielle all right on your name tag?”

“Yes, that’d be great, thank you.”

He hands me the blue mesh bag filled with everything I need the next four days. I realize; this is it. This is the start of the rest of my life. I have chosen a career path. As I turn around, I realize she is there, the one who has always been there, she was there, standing behind me on campus, supporting me in my leadership roles for the first two years of my undergraduate career, she was there in spirit, standing behind me when my dad was deathly ill, and she was there, standing behind me, watching me in spirit as I was handed my diploma from St. Lawrence University in May of 2007 and now she was truly standing behind me as I registered for my first NASPA conference.

“How does it feel, you just registered for your first professional conference?” Dean Petty questions.

“Pretty cool,” I utter, for a lack of words.

We make our way into the opening speaker; a colleague of hers had saved two seats for us. I get lost in my thoughts as we are awaiting the opening speaker. I think about how surreal it is that my former Dean of Students stood behind me as I registered for my first professional conference. She knows that she is largely responsible for my choice to enter into the realm of student affairs. I do wonder if she knows how much she has really impacted my life.

Now that I am in graduate school pursuing my master’s degree, I get books that are ‘required reading’ for her, not for class. She wants me to be the best student affairs professional I can possibly be. Over the course of the next three days, I would be introduced to a variety of student affairs professionals who have been in the field longer than I have been alive. Dean Petty introduces me to her friends, both old and new in order to enlarge my network. She knows next year I have no set location in mind and I can go anywhere and do anything as a young professional. She just wants to see me succeed, and be happy both professionally and personally.

Even though I have not seen Dean Petty in three years prior to this conference, her presence was felt in my daily life. Her travels during her year-long sabbatical took her all over the United States and she finally landed at a southern university. I would get e-mails from Oregon, the mid-west and the east coast.

Her notes of inspiration, “Dean’s Dailies”, a daily e-mail which contained a quote, poem or just a positive thought always made me realize I am part of something bigger than I realize, and that at the end of the day it would be alright – whatever ‘it’ was. Even though it was a mass email, it’s a way for her to connect. Some days I felt as if ‘the daily’ was chosen just for me, other days, I realize the words were for one of the hundreds of other students whose lives she has impacted.

Even though Dean Petty is on the other side of the country, spreading her knowledge, passion, love and energy for Student Affairs, I know that anytime I need her, she is standing behind me, loving me, supporting me, challenging me, encouraging me, but perhaps most importantly, I know that she will always be my dean, and nothing will ever change that.

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