About Rick
Rick Olshak is currently an Associate Dean of Students at Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois.
Rick is originally from upstate New York, spending most of his youth in Schenectady, part of New York's Capital District. A 1981 graduate of Mont Pleasant High School, Rick completed a bachelor's degree (1988) in public communication from The College of Saint Rose in Albany, where he was a two-year member of student government, a three-year member of the men's tennis team (NAIA), and served as editor-in-chief of the student newspaper (Inscape) during his senior year.
Rick then pursued a master's degree in college student personnel at Western Illinois University in Macomb, IL. After completing his coursework, Rick moved back to the east coast, becoming Coordinator of Student Judicial Services in the Office of Student Conduct at Georgetown University in Washington, DC in June, 1990. Then in 1993 Rick moved back to New York to serve as Assistant Director of Residential Services for Judicial Programs at the State University of New York College at Cortland in Cortland, NY.
In 1996 Rick moved back to the midwest to become the Director of the Student Judicial Office (renamed Student Dispute Resolution Services in 2000) at Illinois State University. During this time, Rick wrote and published "Mastering Mediation: A Guide to Training Mediators in a College or University Setting" and became active in the leadership of the Association for Student Judicial Affairs (ASJA), a group Rick eventually served as President for in 2001.
In 2004, Rick was promoted to the position of Associate Dean of Students and was charged with, along with Associate Dean Jill Benson and Assistant Dean Rick Lewis, to assist the new Dean of Students, Dr. Jan Paterson in creating a Dean of Students (DOS) Office out of five previously independent offices. This working group met throughout 2004 and early 2005 developing an organizational structure, budget, and personnel plan, and the office opened for business on July 1, 2005.
In his current role as Associate Dean, Rick is responsible for supervising Community Rights & Responsibilities (student discipline, student grievances, and University-wide conflict resolution/mediation services), the Students' Attorney, Student Transitions (orientation and commencement), and Off-Campus and Nontraditional Student Services. Rick is also the primary advisor to the Student Government Association at Illinois State. In addition, Rick serves as a "Dean on Duty" to respond to individual student crisis situations. He coordinates the student development staff meeting series for the DOS Office, handles student appeals of administrative disciplinary decisions, and coordinates the DOS investigations team. Rick also serves as a member of the Critical Incident Response Team (CIRT) in the Division of Student Affairs.
Rick is also in the process of completing his coursework for an Ed.D. in educational administration and foundations with an emphasis in higher education administration at Illinois State.
In addition to his work at Illinois State University, Rick is a frequent regional and national presenter/speaker on student affairs topics, and serves as an educational consultant to colleges and universities across the United States. Rick is still very actively involved in the field of higher education mediation and in ASJA, and is a member of the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA). Rick is a founding partner of The Campus Mediation Project, a group of higher education consultants committed to the peaceful and constructive resolution of conflicts on college and university campuses.
Rick has three children (daughters Sydney and Jadah, and son Sean). Outside of work, Rick has many interests, including: reading and writing (both fiction and nonfiction), travel, movies, music, history, fantasy and science fiction role-playing games, sports, computers, and blogging.