Dean of Students Ryan Lombardi (right) with Senate President Jesse Neader at a February Student Senate meeting.
It is a little after 7 a.m. on a Monday in late February. The Lombardi family is huddled together around a treadmill and television in their basement. Three-year old Anna and 1-year old Emily, ever the early risers, innocuously play with toys while their mother Kara thumbs through a book. Their father, Ohio University Dean of Students Ryan Lombardi, is on the clock.
There is a tornado warning in Athens County and Lombardi is dutifully alerting thousands of students through Twitter to take shelter immediately. Ironically, he is implementing the two things that make him the poster child of progressive educational administration: unlimited availability and new technology.
In less than a year, Lombardi went from a relative smart phone novice and social media rookie to using it to run one of the most active and perilous student bodies in the Midwest.
This, combined with his 24-hour availability, makes him arguably the most accessible administrator in the University’s history.
Ohio University junior William Boyer works at the Ping Recreation Center, which is a division of the Dean of Students office, and has gotten to know Lombardi on a uniquely personal level. Boyer spontaneously hosted Lombardi for dinner at his off campus house during fall quarter.
“His availability really puts a face to administration,” Boyer said. “I mean what division one college administrator takes the time to eat at a student’s house?”
The limits to his accessibility simply do not exist. His personal cell phone is available to all students. He is a 21st century Rolodex. A tranquil night at home can turn into a telethon in the blink of an eye. His “network” would make the Verizon guy claustrophobic.
ACRN talk radio host Lorenzo Washington has interviewed Lombardi and swears by his reliability.
Washington noted that upon meeting him in his first of three live radio interviews, Lombardi gave him his cell phone number, e-mail address and followed him on Twitter.
“He then went on to tell me that whenever I needed help, just ask,” Washington recounted. “No matter if it is 3 in the afternoon or 3 a.m., he’s always on the job.”
He attends every Student Senate meeting. Most full time working professionals would be counting sheep and drooling during the roll call. Lombardi spends that time greeting students and tweeting about how it is his favorite meeting of the week.
“I just like students taking an interest in their education,” Lombardi insists. “I enjoy seeing the interaction.”
It’s ironic that he mentions that to a generation that desperately needs its educators to take an interest in it. Lombardi’s interest is the students. And upholding that interest in students is not nearly as easy as he makes it seem.
Residence Life Commissioner of the Student Senate Johnny O’Dell has high praise for Lombardi’s leadership in the Senate.
“Dean Lombardi is our administrative backbone,” O’Dell said. “He encourages us administratively and personally. He’s imperative to our body.”
Lombardi presides over some harsh, real world issues with the student body. He signs off on disciplinary items that range from probation to expulsion. He is responsible for backlash from Halloween arrests to Palmer Fest riots. And he has the difficult talk of being the proximate respondent to student tragedies and deaths.
Suicides, freak accidents, and drug/alcohol related deaths have been hauntingly humbling to Lombardi. He is often first on the scene to such tragedies. On multiple occasions he has been responsible for notifying a student’s parents that their worst nightmare had become a reality.
With his predominant interest being the students, such occasions have become his worst nightmare as well. That is why massive student parties like Halloween and spring fests bring imminent stress to the Dean’s office.
“When I go to bed (on the night of a fest), “ Lombardi said solemnly. “I say to myself ‘I pray that no one dies tonight.’”
Even when the student body emerges from a riotous weekend relatively unscathed, Lombardi faces the brunt of the backlash. After last year’s Palmer Fest went up in flames, Lombardi spent the entire Sunday on the phone with enraged parents, irritated alumni, and inquisitive media members. Oh by the way, it was Mother’s Day. His wife’s first with infant Emily.
His dissenters on those days often lay the blame on him for the rowdy parties. He even took heat for this fall’s mascot fight at Ohio State. How can he lose control of the student body? They ask.
There isn’t a line in his contract that says he is responsible for parenting the over 20,000 students on campus, yet so often that is the standard he is held to. But can a guy that dines at students’ houses, paces the city streets on party weekends, and loses sleep over student safety seriously be doing too little?
He sure acts like he is. His schedule is as demanding and unwavering as his comb over. He holds or attends five to 15 meetings each day. He could take out a mortgage on a boardroom. And these aren’t coffee and donut chitchats. He is innovating day in and day out.
His winter of 2011 initiatives include the eventual implementation of pioneer programs like gender neutral housing and a university sponsored drug and alcohol recovery program.
Ohio sophomore and member of Singing Men of Ohio Carter Rodriguez will be the first to boast of the benefits of Lombardi’s approach to his job. Rodriguez has gotten personal assistance from Lombardi with a variety of things from help with a class project to help getting a job. In a time where much of Ohio University administration comes under scrutiny, Rodriguez seems refreshed by the leadership of Lombardi.
“He’s always there to help out a student,” Rodriguez said. “This administration (at Ohio University) has a lot of problems, but Ryan Lombardi is not one of them.”
This is all big praise drawn to a guy who not too long ago was a self-proclaimed nerdy music major wearing khakis every day as an undergrad at small school Westchester University outside of Philadelphia. Lombardi, who was born in Iowa, spent most of his childhood moving from state to state, and at this rate, he will spend most of his already innovative career moving up the administrative ladder.
Before coming to Ohio, Lombardi served as Assistant Dean of Students and Associate Dean of Students at Duke University. After his promotion a couple years ago, he is the brightest in the business as Dean of Students and Associate Vice President of Student Affairs in Athens.
It would not at all be preposterous to assume that the next step for Lombardi is on a vice president level, and with his assiduous approach to the new age of education, it would not be crazy to think that such a rise might come soon.
One needs to look no further than Lombardi’s office to put into context just how special he is.
The staff he presides over is the cornerstone to his success, and quite frankly, they are ridiculously qualified. Both Lombardi’s assistant and associate deans have PhDs. Which brings to light the most remarkable part of Lombardi’s reign, he is currently working on a dissertation himself.
It is a Friday afternoon, and the Baker Center cafeteria is packed with students grabbing their late week lunches. In the center of the seating area sits Lombardi, dressed in his usual weekday best. He looks embattled from another chaotic week on the job, but there is something in his eyes that tells a different tale. He beams calmly with uninhibited joy on his face. Next to him sits his wife and two little girls who paid a surprise visit to work to help ring in the weekend.
It is in this moment that all are ensured that those dissenters, enraged callers, and standard setters from last Mother’s Day were right.
Ryan Lombardi’s primary position is as a parent, and he could not be happier about it.
