Lythcott-Haims stepping down as dean of freshmen and undergraduate advising

Julie Lythcott-Haims, known affectionately to students as "Dean Julie," came to Stanford as a freshman in 1985. She is leaving her position as associate vice provost for undergraduate education and dean of freshmen and undergraduate advising in June to pursue her passion for writing as a master of fine arts student in poetry.

Julie Lythcott-Haims, associate vice provost for undergraduate education and dean of freshmen and undergraduate advising, is leaving Stanford in June to enroll in the master of fine arts program at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco.

Lythcott-Haims, affectionately known to students as "Dean Julie," first came to Stanford as a freshman in 1985. She has worked as associate dean for student affairs in the Law School, assistant to the president and dean of freshmen and undergraduate advising in her 14 years as a university administrator. After graduating from Stanford, Lythcott-Haims earned her law degree at Harvard and practiced corporate law before returning to Stanford.

"It is virtually impossible to imagine Stanford without Julie Lythcott-Haims," said Harry Elam, the Freeman-Thornton Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education. "She has been a key presence in the lives of Stanford students as well as in the functioning of the Office of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education. All the students know her as Dean Julie. Through her leadership, the advising program at Stanford has significantly improved. She has built community and elevated class spirit to new heights. Her charisma, her charm and her passion for Stanford and Stanford students have touched all of us. She will be sorely missed."

Lythcott-Haims, a 2010 winner of the Dinkelspiel Award for contributions to undergraduate education, talks about her time at Stanford and her plans for the future.


Why are you leaving and what are your plans?

In my current role, I try to get students to open up to themselves and honor what they hear. I love this work more than any other work I’ve done, and yet I know it’s time to take my own advice and try to become the writer I would like to be. My formal next step will be an MFA in Writing (Poetry). My first book project will reflect on what I’ve learned about students and parents as a university administrator.


You have had a ringside seat to the Stanford culture for nearly 30 years. How has it changed?

Every time the band plays in the fountain at Admit Weekend and I watch a new set of students and parents take it all in, I say to myself, "Folks, you’re not in Cambridge, you’re not in New Haven, you’re not in Princeton, you’re in Palo Alto, and we do things differently here." The band was in that fountain when I arrived in 1985, and I’m glad that special blend of intellectualism and irreverence hasn’t changed.

What has changed is that this great research university decided it also wanted to be great at undergraduate education by bringing our undergraduates into the center of the research mission and connecting them with faculty. Through introductory seminars, millions devoted to undergraduate research, sophomore college and the arts intensive, undergraduates have access to the very best of Stanford. That’s what my fellow alumni and I find most astonishing – that somehow Stanford is even better than when we were here.



Have students changed?

There’s a lot more competition for each spot, and our students are incredibly accomplished coming out of high school. The university is much more diverse. The students are more career-oriented – but whether that is a function of their hearts changing or their minds just reacting to the realities of the economy is hard to know. They are also devoted to solving some of the world’s most intractable problems. The biggest difference I see is the involvement that parents have in the lives of their college students, who they may still think of as ’children.’