Dr. Daniel Nadler is the interim Vice President of Student Life for the 2022-2023 year. Since Dr. Shawn Brooks decided to retire, Dr. Nadler joined GC to fill in the position until a permanent replacement is hired. 

Before coming to Milledgeville, Dr. Nadler already had experience working in higher education. Previously, he worked at West Virginia State University, St. Thomas University in Miami, NorthernKentucky University, Eastern Illinois University, Southern Illinois University, and Tulane University in New Orleans.

“Fortunately with my variety of different experiences, which has been large, medium, small institutions, public and private, minority-serving, Hispanic-serving, and historically Black universities, hopefully, I can bring some different perspectives and ideas and suggestions that may not just naturally happen on their own,” Nadler said. 

According to GC’s website, the Division of Student Life “offers a wide range of activities, services, and opportunities to become engaged in campus life that challenges students, develops habits of excellence, and connects life outside the classroom to the formal academic curriculum.”

In other words, the Office of Student Life and the Vice President of Student Life are essentially responsible for managing university-related events and activities that take place outside of the classroom. The Vice President himself will also work with other upper-level faculty to strategically plan for the future of the university as a whole. 

To get started on these kinds of projects, Dr. Nadler explained that it is crucial for him to develop strong working relationships with his fellow staff.

“Certainly in higher education, and especially in student life work, there’s very little to nothing that we get accomplished without a sense of team and without a sense of collaboration,” Nadler said. “So relationships are really, really, extremely important. My first goal was really to invest a lot of time and energy in getting to know people, learning about the programs and services, learning about our students and where they come from and what their aspirations are.”

Dr. Nadler has certainly had the opportunity to interact with the student body this year. He lives in the faculty housing at West Campus and likes to go and talk to students when events are taking place. In talking to these students, he is trying to gauge how he can best improve the university experience for everyone. 

“I think a lot of students are still just having a little bit of a challenge really coming out of the Covid phase,” Nadler said. “We’re still kind of going through a transition and what I’d like to see is everyone just really kind of jump in and completely immerse themselves in a variety of different experiences, both in and outside the classroom, and help to rebuild their really vibrant and thriving campus community.”

Dr. Nadler is incredibly pleased by all that GC has to offer. He sees a vibrant campus full of students eager to be involved both inside the classroom and out. GC presents unique opportunities for its students such as small class sizes and undergraduate research opportunities. Nadler described GC as “a public university that has very much of a private university feel.”

“I see GC as just really having unlimited potential,” Nadler said. “There’s a lot of great things in place, but there’s also an opportunity to really kind of take things to the next level. I’m really impressed with what the students do here and having such a high percentage of our students involved in intramurals is really something phenomenal. You don’t see that at most universities.”

Dr. Nadler will only remain at GC through June of 2023, but in his year here, he is working hard to improve student life and make GC an even better university than it already is.