Jukier to stay on

Jukier to stay on

MICAH LOCILENTO | Dean of Students Rosalie Jukier has been re-appointed to her position until May 31, 2001. Opting for what she calls a "mini-extension" rather than another five-year term, Jukier will remain at her post for another year, allowing her to "finish a number of projects."

While construction of the Brown Building, Jukier's "major mandate" when she took over as Dean of Students five years ago, is complete, another one of her projects, the development of the first-year co-ordinator's office, is still in its infancy. In an effort to help new students better "negotiate the McGill maze," Jukier has completely reformed McGill's method of orientation.

In place of what used to be a short and impersonal information session that was concerned largely with making students aware of their rights, the freshman class of 2000 will be treated to McGill's new orientation program. Led by Jukier's first year co-ordinator's office, new students will be immersed in a "one-day experience whereby [they] get faculty and services information, tours of the campus and information sessions with upper year students."

In a special effort to reach out to McGill's francophone students, Jukier has also created the position of first-year francophone facilitator to provide francophone students with "help on anything academic or social." This new post will offer workshops on essential academic skills such as note-taking, essay-writing and studying. In tandem with first-year co-ordinator Leslie Copeland, francophone facilitator Cathy Giulietti will be involved in calling new students at home in an effort to welcome them to the university. Everything has been designed, Jukier explains, to "ease the transition for first year students."

And this, she says, is what she hopes will be her legacy as dean. "I want to be remembered for the Brown Building," Jukier notes, "but I also want to be remembered for re-establishing a good relationship between students and administration. When I took over as dean," she recalls, " that relationship was not one of trust and co-operation."

Much of that has changed. "I have an enthusiastic personality and students have reacted well to that," she explains. "They saw my enthusiasm and my willingness to look forward... I love students and I'm excited about implementing new ideas. I want to be remembered as a cog in the wheel that moved [the relationship between students and administration] forward."

When this last year is up, Jukier will take a year-long sabbatical that she will use to "get [her] head back into academics." While the law professor has been teaching part-time during her tenure as dean, the demands of the job have not allowed her "the luxury of time to think lofty academic thoughts."