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The phone rang in Jill Carnaghi's office. Said the student on the other end of the line: "Hello, Assistant Vice Chancellor Carnaghi."
Carnaghi had a quick response: "Whoa É I don't have enough time in my life for that É Jill's fine."
Carnaghi is accessible, personal, to the point --and busy.
"Students don't know what to call me," said the assistant vice chancellor for students and director of campus life. "Sometimes they call me Dean Carnaghi, but I'm not a dean."
No matter --Carnaghi isn't worried about formalities. She wants to get straight to the business of connecting with students.
Deeply committed to the 5,000-plus students she serves, Carnaghi tries to maintain a visible, supportive presence on campus. Each week she attends several night and weekend activities of the University's 200 student groups, and she is on the receiving end of scores of daily e-mail and voice mail messages.
Carnaghi is responsible for the Office of Student Activities, the Greek Life office, Event Services and Student Educational Service. She works in tandem with three other assistant vice chancellors for students: Justin Carroll, dean of students; Karen Levin Coburn, associate dean for the freshman transition; and Steven P. Hoffner, director of operations.
Carnaghi and others are grappling with a number of projects that embody the idea of a "seamless" experience --from a learning center (which would locate the Disability Resource Center and Student Educational Service in one visible location in Gregg House) to the development of small group housing to a new University Center.
 Carnaghi, Sarah and Michael enjoy some beach time on the shores of Lake Michigan. |
Small group housing will bring together returning students with common interests in one living area. The four buildings and quadrangle, under construction at Big Bend and Millbrook, are slated to be ready next fall.
A new University Center would provide a comfortable space where faculty, students, staff and all kinds of groups could gather for the exchange of ideas É "a place that says 'Welcome to our house,'" Carnaghi emphasized. A truly functional center would contain key offices, such as the Career Center, and provide student groups with equipment and meeting spaces.
Student media now, for instance, are spread out across campus. "We can bring them together," Carnaghi said. "They can be distinctive, but still collaborate."
Carnaghi helped Student Life incorporate and become independent of the University and assisted in the creation of its 13-member board of directors, on which she now serves.
"She is always willing to lend a hand or just sit down and talk. At times when I was frustrated by whatever, she was there to reinforce the good things and help me work through the bad things," he continued. Carnaghi has bridged the gap, he said, between students and administration, and has earned the trust of staff and students.
Carnaghi offers assistance to student groups even when she does not personally support their views. "We can agree to disagree," she said, "and the students here are so respectful, they'll accept that."
James E. McLeod, vice chancellor for students, said Carnaghi can help students see a broader context. "She is blunt-spoken. I appreciate that," he said. "She can help students see how they are viewed and how what they are doing is viewed. An important job of a university is to reflect back. It's a part of teaching and mentoring."
Continually impressed with the caliber of students here, Carnaghi said it was an "incredibly engaging dinner conversation" with 12 to 15 students that made her leave the University of Vermont --and a job she enjoyed --for Washington University in June 1997.
Carnaghi had been director of residential life at Vermont since 1991 when Washington University came calling. McLeod discovered her through a search firm. "They emerged with a dossier of recommendations from those who worked with her and a wonderful picture of her experience and accomplishments," he said.
Carnaghi and McLeod share the idea that co-curricular activities are not simply something to fill a student's spare time, but rather a proving ground --a place to stretch and grow, to develop leadership skills and to lay the groundwork for a lifetime of community involvement. "I want students to say they loved the time they spent at Wash U., that they had the opportunity to take risks and explore challenges within a safe, secure environment and that their co-curricular activities enhanced their primary reason to be here," she said.
As president of the 8,000-strong American College Personnel Association, Carnaghi is trying to change how the field of student affairs administration is perceived. "So many people don't see student affairs as a profession," she contended. "Knowledge-based skills and competencies are needed to serve students well."
Being involved comes naturally to Carnaghi, whose parents were --and still are --extremely active volunteers. Her father serves as a mentor for high school juniors and on numerous civic boards, and her mother works with hospitals and children. "It was part and parcel of growing up," Carnaghi said. "My parents instilled in me, 'What do you give back as a responsible citizen?'"
Carnaghi grew up in Indianapolis, the eldest of four children, and attended parochial schools. Active in high school, she was elected class president. She followed in her parents' footsteps and attended Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind.
She pursued a pre-veterinary science degree but soon made a self-discovery: "I realized I liked the co-curricular activities better than the curricular," she said. Carnaghi, who said she could be a student forever, received a bachelor's degree in human development and recreation in 1975 and a master's degree in college student personnel administration in 1977 from Michigan State University.
After jobs at Vermont and the University of California-Davis, she earned a doctorate in higher education administration in 1992 from Indiana University, Bloomington.
In 1991, Carnaghi married Paul Schimmele, whom she met during doctoral study. The couple soon moved to Vermont, where Carnaghi had accepted a position as director of residential life. While there, Carnaghi and her husband decided to adopt a child. Miraculously, they became the adoptive parents of biological siblings. They first adopted a baby girl, and, two years later, when the same birth mother and father were expecting a second child, the adoption agency contacted Carnaghi again.
Carnaghi is suffering a little of the usual maternal angst as Sarah, now 6, is attending kindergarten. Little brother Michael is 4 and likes to tell his mommy --the one with all the big titles --that when he blows into her ear he can feel air rushing out the other side.
Carnaghi lives across the street from the University, which makes it easier for her to pop home for a quick dinner and steal a few moments with the children before returning to campus.
"Of all the things I've been involved in, by far, being a parent is the most amazing," she mused. "If you ever wondered what your values are, they're crystallized in a second. The toughest thing for me is the balancing act. I can clearly say what my priorities are --how to live them is a balancing act that will continue until the day I die."
Thus, Carnaghi's biggest problem --too much of a good thing 24 hours a day. She tries to take a walk most mornings --not so much for physical exercise, but "to be there by myself," she said.
Michelle Purdy, Student Union president, said Carnaghi is someone students can look to as they struggle to find the balance in their lives. "She sees our lives as all-encompassing --spiritual, social, personal and, most important, academic. It's difficult for students to balance all these things. As a female, it's interesting to see how she balances her professional and family life."
Added Carnaghi: "This is the one place I've been where every student has a day planner. I try to help them find their niche. They don't have to do everything at once. I would hope we instill the idea of lifelong.
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