In May, after nearly two decades of living and working within the Saint Leo University Community, Dr. Edward Dadez retired from his position as Vice President for Student Affairs and Campus Operations. Having spent decades living and interacting with students on numerous campuses, Dadez reflected on his time within the Saint Leo Community with The Lions’ Pride.
“When I first arrived in 2000, I was vice president for Student Affairs. Later, then University President Dr. Arthur Kirk asked me to take over the education centers from Key West to Virginia out to San Diego. So, for about 11 years, I was also responsible for the education centers and at one point also for the online platform,” said Dadez.
As the vice president of Student Affairs, Dadez was responsible for everything outside the classrooms and not [on]the athletic fields in addition to the centers.
“Three years ago [2015] my title changed to vice president for Student Affairs and Campus Operations, which meant I still had the student affairs operations on campus, but I had also picked up the facilities management and some of the other business affairs functions,” he said.
Dr. Dadez was a pivotal individual within the Centre Education Offices, opening numerous centers including but not limited to the Norfolk Centre. Credit: Saint Leo University
Despite having multiple positions under his remit during his tenure, there were a few highlights of his time.
“The first highlight was during [my]first year. I started on March 15, 2000, and the campus was much smaller, probably no more than 600-700 students living on campus,” Dadez said. “I was very surprised that students weren’t happy because the campus seemed idyllic, you know off of this lake with palm trees. I spent most of my professional career in Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania so how could people not be happy?”
Dadez spent a lot of time talking with students, faculty and staff to figure out what was Student Affairs doing right, and what they could do better.
“With that I began working with the staff to begin [the implementation]of a number of strategies that would increase retention, but also even more importantly, increase student satisfaction, and about two years in, it was clear to me that we had begun to make that change.”
One change Dadez explained was student retention. Around the time he had arrived, student retention was in the low 60 percent range, which increased to around 72 percent within a three to five-year period.
Another highlight of his tenure at Saint Leo was working with the Student Government Union in the capacity as their adviser. This was an exceptional experience for Dadez, given the proximity of lives he could affect in this role.
“One of the things you realize when you’re in a professional career is that, as you move up, you have less and less time with students and that’s the part that always kind of bothered me,” stated Dadez.
A plaque of recognition hangs in the Student Activities Building for Dr. Dadez’s many years of service. Credit: Saint Leo University
For the first eight years of Dadez’s professional career, he said he was like a residence hall director, and during that time, he got to know students extremely well and became close with a lot of those students. In fact, he’s still in contact with a number of those students.
Dadez always lived on campus, which gave him a deep connection to the Saint Leo community.
“Living on the campus was important to me when I came to Saint Leo because I think that students felt that staff weren’t listening to them. In having me also live on campus, they began to become closer with me; I think it helped turn [the situation]around, he said”
“The staff members saw that as an important value, but it also provided some opportunities in changing staff to bring in staff who felt that it was important to get to know students, to listen to students and to become more engaged in the campus.”
Having attended and worked on several university campuses including Virginia Commonwealth, The Ohio State University, The University of Dayton, Michigan State, Bucknell and Chowan University in North Carolina, Dadez has experienced all types of campuses and all types of student bodies, but Saint Leo is where he connected most with students.
“I’ve worked at a lot of institutions not because I couldn’t hold a job, but because I kept moving up,” said Dadez. “I felt the most comfortable at Saint Leo University with the type of student body it is.
Dadez found joy in recounting many memorable moments of his time at Saint Leo University. Among those moments was the arrival of his sons as Saint Leo students. Credit: Golden Legend 2000
Dadez and his wife were first-generation college students, and being half Asian and half white, he felt the diversity, the kind he didn’t see at some of the other schools.
“I was more comfortable working with the type of students that were really trying to make it,” he said. “Saint Leo has a good percentage of first-generation college students, and [I was] trying to help them and trying to be a voice for them but also someone that they could relate to about what it was like to go home at Thanksgiving and have your parents [not]understand what college is or why you’re there or why that’s important,” said Dadez.
Dadez is optimistic about the outlook for the University under the guidance of Dr. Senese.
“I think the future is extremely bright with Dr. Senese. I was impressed with him when he arrived on campus; I knew that he had a vision for where the University could go, and I loved the interview that he had with The Lions’ Pride Media Groupoutlining the things that he was going to do.”
Acknowledging his previous successes in the field of education, Dadez owes a large part of his success to listening to the staff, but more importantly the students under his portfolios. This advice is what he wishes to relay to whomever would take over his position.
The invaluable and selfless service provided by Dadez could not be over emphasized. In the future Dadez looks forward to serving the community in another capacity, one that will involve deeper interaction with students.
