
Sandra Olson-Loy is vice chancellor for student affairs. Senior student affairs officer since 1999, she is responsible for a comprehensive program that develops student potential; fosters student learning, persistence and success; and extends the Morris liberal arts mission beyond the classroom. Olson-Loy has worked to build a highly effective, student-centered student life program rooted in Morris’s mission as a selective, rural, residential public liberal arts college serving one of Minnesota’s most diverse, talented and engaged student bodies. She is the third vice chancellor for student affairs at Morris and had the pleasure of working closely with her predecessors while she led Student Activities on campus from 1985 to 1999.
Olson-Loy has played a leadership role in Morris’s nationally recognized sustainability initiatives from planning the Green Prairie Community (a LEED gold-designed, sustainability-focused residence hall that opened in fall 2013) to the creation of the Morris Healthy Eating and Pride of the Prairie local foods initiatives. She and colleagues secured US Department of Education grants ($3.1M) to strengthen American Indian student success and establish a Trio Student Support Services project in 2015. Her “Student Localism" chapter in Leading America’s Branch Campuses (S. Schuman, Ed. American Council on Education, 2009) highlights the role of civic engagement and place-based learning in connecting a college and its community to deepen student learning.
Reporting Units
- Community Engagement
- Dining Services
- Equity, Diversity and Intercultural Programs
- Health Service
- Intercollegiate Athletics
- International Student Program
- Multi-Ethnic Student Program
- Native American Student Success Program
- Residential Life
- Student Activities
- Conferences and Special Events
- Student Counseling
- Student Life
- Summit Scholars—a TRIO Student Services Program