Mississippi State University Dean of Students Thomas Bourgeois serves as an advocate for students and their parents by providing resources and information that help ease the strain of college life.
Bourgeois said one of the primary responsibilities of his office is to help students find the right resources to resolve their problems.
“Our motto is to not help students out of situations, but through them,” Bourgeois said. “Students deserve an answer and we are often their first step to finding one.”
Bourgeois said the Dean of Students’ office deals with issues such as student conduct, grade appeals and student events on campus.
“About 20 percent of the traffic through our office involves student misconduct,” Bourgeois said. “We have very few repeat offenders, though.”
Bourgeois said cases of misconduct arise when student actions conflict with university values or goals, such as acts of theft or cheating.
“We do not judge the person, but the action,” Bourgeois said.
As the Dean of Students, Bourgeois oversees the student conduct board. The student conduct board is comprised of fellow students that decide when it is appropriate to give students a second chance.
“Many students do not understand that after they turn 18, there are very few opportunities for second chances,” he said. “Sometimes our job is to find and address the underlying causes of misconduct and make sure a second chance is what the student needs.”
Having been in the Dean of Students’ office since 1999, Bourgeois said, by and large, the student population is well behaved.
“I am generally very impressed with the behavior of students at our university,” he said. “We really have our stuff together, and people in our offices genuinely care about the students.”
The Dean of Students’ office is also responsible for the MSU student organization event form, which allows student groups to hold events on campus. Activities involving fund raising and raffles all pass through the Dean of Students’ office.
“We evaluate how previous events went so we can better spot any possible mistakes that might be preventable in the future,” Bourgeois said. “We also know how to best get the word out and raise awareness about events.”
The Dean of Students’ office is the final signature on any student event form, he said.
Bourgeois also works with the Office of Parent Services. The office offers the parents of students a voice and gives them resources to better understand student life on campus.
“A lot of what we do is best explained as being a parent to the parent by helping them realize what is and is not an issue,” he said. “Sometimes parents try to be too involved; that was the genesis of creating the office of parent services.”
Bourgeois said parents should expect changing relationships with their children as they become adults at college.
Helping parents and students resolve issues is one of the most rewarding parts of his job, he said.
“It is always rewarding when you see a student or parent have that eureka moment and everything becomes clear,” Bourgeois said. “It can come from something as simple as helping a student choose the proper major, to having a previously suspended student come back and be successful.”
Although his office often works behind the scenes, he said one of its primary roles is being present, efficient and one of the first resources for students.
“I would rather people call me than suffer in silence,” Bourgeois said.