Dear Tulane Community,
Dr. J. Davidson “Dusty” Porter has announced that he will step down as Vice President of Student Affairs, effective June 30, 2024. For the past nine years, Dusty has led our Student Affairs division, which encompasses Housing and Residence Life, Student Health and Wellness, Student Resources and Support Services, Campus Life and Diversity and Intercultural Life and Judicial Affairs. He also serves on the President’s Cabinet and Administrative Council.
Soon after Dusty arrived at Tulane in 2014, he was appointed to lead the President’s Task Force on the Undergraduate Student Experience. The task force made recommendations, which the administration quickly enacted, that transformed residential life, grew campus health and mental health services, strengthened academic and co-curricular partnerships throughout Tulane’s undergraduate programs and created the Center for Academic Equity to support first-generation and historically underrepresented college students.
As part of the task force recommendations, Dusty oversaw the creation of a new health and wellness portfolio, which included Campus Health, Counseling and Psychological Services, and the Well Center for Health Promotion and Campus Recreation. Under his leadership, the Office of Student Affairs established The Line, a 24/7 phone service for mental health support and introduced telehealth options for students. He was also a leader in the effort to create a Tulane Recovery Community and the Recovery Community House for students battling addictions.
Partnering with key stakeholders and colleagues, Dusty helped hire Tulane’s first Title IX Coordinator and co-created the annual Shifting the Paradigm event, through which the university shares data on sexual violence and sexual assault within the Tulane community.
Student satisfaction, retention and programmatic participation have all increased under Dusty’s leadership of Student Affairs. He assisted in instituting Residential Learning Communities, programming for The Village and a Greek Life Steering Committee to grow and support Tulane’s fraternities and sororities.
Among other roles, Dusty co-chaired the Presidential Inauguration Committee as well as the committee that planned the dedication of Décou-Labat Hall in honor of Tulane’s first African American undergraduates. He also played a role in establishing a new and larger location for the Carolyn Barber-Pierre Center for Intercultural Life, which expanded office and program space on the academic quadrangle to serve BIPOC, LGBTQ+ and religious and spiritual students.
For his many efforts on behalf of students, Dusty was selected as a Pillar of the Profession by the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators and served as a faculty member for the new Vice President of Student Affairs Institute.
Dusty has proven to be a true champion of the student experience and Tulane’s student-centric model. While he continues to lead our Student Affairs division through the current academic year, we will begin a national search for his replacement. Please join us in thanking Dusty for his dedicated service and commitment to Tulane and, most importantly, to our students. We wish him every success in the future.
Sincerely,
Michael A. Fitts, President
Robin Forman, Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost