L&S appoints student academic affairs leader

Judi Roller has been appointed to lead the Student Academic Affairs office in the College of Letters and Science.

As an associate dean, Roller will assume responsibility for:

• Letters and Science advising programs, including the Cross-College Advising Service, which guides students who haven’t declared a major through their academic programs. L&S advisors typically work with more than 17,000 undergraduates every year.
• L&S honors and enhancement opportunities.
• L&S mentor programs, which pair undergraduate students with faculty and staff, often to conduct research.
• Summer programs to help incoming and potential students adjust to life and work at the university.
• Implementation of faculty academic policies.

Roller says an immediate goal will be to work closely with Ann Groves-Lloyd, new director of the reorganized Letters and Science Career Advising and Planning office. “We will be developing assessment plans to measure the effectiveness of the total program,” Roller says.

Roller comes to UW–Madison from Millersville University of Pennsylvania, where she served as associate provost for academic programs and services for three years. Before that, she held a similar job at the University of Hawaii-Manoa.

Roller earned an undergraduate degree with honors in English and biology from Bowling Green State, where she later became director of registration. In addition, she has an M.A. and Ph.D. in English from the University of Michigan; her dissertation, “The Politics of the Feminist Novel,” was published by Greenwood Press and received an Outstanding Book Award from Choice magazine in 1987.

Roller says her experiences in the liberal arts put her in prime position to help the college design and implement effective resources for its undergraduates to chart their future.

“I’ve negotiated the ‘get a job’ route myself, and I think the foundation my liberal arts degrees have given me have helped rather than hindered my career,” she says.

Letters and Science Dean Phillip Certain says Roller’s background was an important factor in choosing her to lead SAA. “We are all impressed with her ability to assume a key role in L&S,” he says. “The students will learn quickly about her orientation toward serving their interests, and faculty and staff will welcome her as a dynamic new colleague.”

On the job since August, Roller succeeds Janet Vandevender, who retired in July. During her six years in the position, Vandevender restructured SAA into three major divisions: advising; providing services, information and support; and fostering community within the largest school or college at UW–Madison.

SAA is located in 70 Bascom Hall. For more information, call (608) 262-2644.