Michelle Emmett
by Joe King
When Michelle “Micki” Emmett leaves NIU on May 1 to take over leadership of the DeKalb County Red Cross, the last line on her resume will read “assistant vice president for student affairs.”
Those who worked with her over the last 27 years, however, assign to her many other titles: student advocate, mentor, leader, cheerleader and, above all others, friend. It’s difficult, they say, to imagine campus without her.
“To me she is NIU,” says long time friend and colleague Chris Herrmann, director of Campus Child Care.
“Everything she does, any decision she makes, she has the best interest of NIU at heart – especially when it’s regarding students. Whenever she talks about students, it’s never ‘the students,’ it’s always ‘our students.’ It’s an important clue to how she looks at students and the university.”
Dawn Sturma-Littlefield, who worked under Emmett as the activities adviser for Greek Affairs during the early 1990s, concurs.
“She was one of the best student advocates I ever worked with. She demanded the same high level of work from her staff, but she also managed to always keep work fun.”
During her 17 years in the Office of University Programming and Activities, starting in 1981, Emmett’s desire to nurture students manifested itself in many different ways
She taught classes in leadership, fostered the growth and development of student government on campus and guided groups like the Greek Life Commission, which pulled together faculty, staff and students to help students address important issues. She also placed a premium on professional development for her staff to make sure they always had the skills needed to do their best for students.
Her time in UP&A included a long and varied list of accomplishments, from attracting big name musical acts to campus on a shoestring budget to the creation of the Campus Activities Board. She was also in the vanguard of advocacy for minority students and inclusion for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
“She had a commitment to diversity before it was the thing to do,” Sturma-Littlefield says.
At the heart of all of those accomplishments, say those who worked with her, was an ability to connect deeply with students.
“The close relationships she built with student leaders, especially those in student government, earned her a great deal of respect and made her invaluable when we had difficult issues to work through,” says retired Vice Provost Gary Gresholdt, who worked with Emmett in various capacities for nearly a quarter century.
In 1998, Gresholdt selected Emmett for the job of assistant vice provost for student affairs. In that role she took on a heavier administrative burden, assisting in budgeting and personnel oversight responsibilities for nine areas within that division.
However, she maintained close contact with students while carrying out many duties typically associated with the role of dean of students, such as assisting students with medical withdrawals, handling final appeals in judicial matters and reaching out to assist parents and families after student deaths.
All of those skills continued to be of importance when, in 2004, she moved into the job of assistant vice president for student services. In that role she focused her efforts on oversight of Campus Child Care, Career Services, Commuter and Non-Traditional Services and Student Legal Assistance. She also maintained many of her responsibilities as dean of students because of her skill in guiding students through difficult times.
“She has an amazing ability to connect with students at those moments,” says Vice President for Student Affairs Brian Hemphill. “She finds just what it takes to encourage them. She also has the ability to connect them with the resources they need to ensure that they are able to be successful here at NIU.”
She also hasn’t lost her knack for keeping work fun.
“Micki is the biggest cheerleader in the whole division,” says Jill Zambito, director of Commuter and Non-Traditional Student Services. “Every meeting she’s in, she is always handing out kudos to people for a job well done. And at any event that is held anywhere within the division, it seems that Micki is there, showing her support.”
With typical modesty, Emmett brushes such compliments aside. Showing up at events is simply a matter of professional courtesy, she says, and many of her accomplishments she credits to “the great staff that I always had around me.”
Thinking about those people, she says, makes it hard to leave.
“My heart is full of gratitude and love for this institution and all of the people I have met here, especially the students, who have been very special to me,” Emmett says.
Unwilling to leave all of that behind, she plans to find ways to ensure that NIU is part of her next venture as executive director of the DeKalb County Red Cross.
“I really hope to strengthen the bond between NIU and Red Cross. Northern is blessed with an abundance of resources that most not-for-profit agencies don’t have,” she says.
A reception in Emmett’s honor is scheduled for 3 to 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 30, in Neptune Central. A program will begin at 3:30 p.m. Friends and guests are invited to bring photos, letters or stories to be included in a memory book; memories also can be sent in advance to cherrmann@niu.edu.