Kopp takes over as Northern dean of students

A new dean of students is taking over that position at Montana State University-Northern this year. 

"My previous position was working with primarily student activities, residential life - this is going to broaden my scope a bit, so I'm excited about job responsibilities, but the longer I've been here, honestly, the thing I'm most excited about now is working with all these people, " Corey Kopp said. "This is one of the most collaborative teams frame I've seen."

He said he is in his 20th year working in higher education. He began that career as a hall director at some smaller institutions and community colleges in Seattle and Tacoma, Washington.

For the last 13 years, he said, he was in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where he worked at Augustana University.

He started out as a director of housing and director of resident life then moved to the position of director of campus life at Augustana University, he said.

He said he received his bachelor's degree at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington, received his master's from Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington.

His wife, Katie Kopp, is a new math teacher at Havre High School.

He said he and others at Northern are working toward making sure the university doesn't go back to remote learning.

"We are also trying to be realistic and understanding that things may be outside of our control," Kopp said. 

On the student life side of things, he said, they are thinking about the student experience, particularly the students living on campus because the residential experience is going to be a challenging one to manage.

He said they are limiting occupancy, trying to reduce numbers where they can, keep people in individual rooms, rank up the number of cleaning and sanitizing and more.

"My focus in the last month has kind of been a lot of the planning and prepping with my team to help make that work, but also to think about how we can help students learn how to navigate this thing themselves," he said. "At the end of the day, it's about how well we actually take care of ourselves and do the things we need to, and how we're thinking about the people around us that makes the difference. The hope is that we can help students see that too and we all can work really hard to keep Northern in person as long as possible."

"We've been so excited about the reception we've received and the kindness we've seen in the last month we've been here, and it's been a fantastic move for us," Kopp added. "We're excited."