60 Seconds with Doneka Scott

Doneka Scott began work in early 2021 as vice chancellor and dean of the Division of Academic and Student Affairs, overseeing programs ranging from academic advising to ARTS NC State. Scott came from the University of Oregon, where she helped increase the school’s four-year graduation rate in her role as vice provost for undergraduate education and student success.

How do you measure student success?

Students should be socially and academically integrated in an institution — have a positive experience, be well educated, socially responsible and career ready. But the endpoint is that students have to graduate. I don’t want them on a 10-year plan.

Do you have specific targets in terms of student success?

I want to do some intensive, innovative work on career development, just really having students ready when they graduate, to have the skills required to be successful. My grandparents stayed in the same job for 34 years and then retired. That doesn’t happen now. Every three to five years, we can almost guarantee our students may not only change jobs, they may change professions. How do we prepare our students for a shift like that? I think we can revolutionize career development on this campus.

With the pandemic and issues of racial and social justice, these have been tumultuous times for college students. How can NC State help them?

Many of our students haven’t had the traditional college experience. Students have gotten used to services and support in virtual ways. We have students that have more access to services in ways that they hadn’t had before. You have students who don’t particularly like courses that were virtual, but for some other students, they have been able to engage in ways that they would have never been able to do before. So we have to balance that, and understand that because of COVID we are moving into a time where expectations are different.

What’s one bit of advice you have for students?

Take advantage of the resources and opportunities at your disposal. We have amazing, world-renowned guest speakers that come to campus. The opportunity to study abroad. Don’t waste a moment.