Judy McReynolds, Associate Editor

Mable and Decoster co-edited three books ­ Understanding Today's Students, Personal Education and Community Development in College Residence Halls, and Student Development and Education in College Residence Halls ­ studied for 20 years by persons working in student affairs. Their names belong in a Who's Who of higher education.

They helped establish a national trend emphasizing the entire college experience as a learning environment, a trend in which residence halls with learning plans replace dorms, in which learning about community and service are a large part of learning about self.

David DeCoster has retired and is living in Florida.

And Mable is our Phyllis. "Miss Mable" to almost 20 years of Longwood students. The Longwood College Vice President for Student Affairs is herself retiring after spring semester 2001. She plans to live in D.C. and promote some of the national organizations with which she has long affiliation.

Phyllis Mable earned degrees at Cornell and Indiana universities then worked as assistant director of housing for educational programs at the University of Florida for 12 years and as dean of student affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University for 11 years. A list of her national affiliations, awards, publications and consulting positions fills several pages. She has served as president of the American College Personnel Association (ACPA) and won the ACPA Outstanding Professional Service Award. She has been president of the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (CAS) from 1989 to 2001 and plans to promote this organization in D.C. She received the Mel Hardee Award for Outstanding Service from the Southern Association for College Student Affairs and the Elizabeth A. Greenleaf Distinguished Alumnus/Alumna Award from Indiana University's School of Education. She has directed national and regional symposiums and workshops on student development and on residence education for housing professionals, chaired the financial affairs committee for the American Personnel and Guidance Association and served on the advisory board of the ERIC Counseling and Personnel Services clearinghouse and on the editorial boards of the Southern College Personnel Association Journal and the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators Journal.

She co-edited with Charles C. Schroeder Realizing the Educational Potential of Residence Halls, published by Jossey-Bass in 1994. The book explains how residence halls can promote student learning and personal development by becoming more integral to the overall educational college experience.

The image of Longwood College, its faculty and staff have benefitted from the prestige and professional standing of Phyllis Mable, even though Mable herself seldom called attention to them. Most Longwood students know very little about Miss Mable's national standing. But they know they are losing an advocate, someone for whom students are her business, her only business, someone who will stop them on a street corner and ask "How's it going? How do you view your Longwood experience?" and take seriously their responses. To show just how much students care, Alpha Phi Omega, a coed service fraternity, declared April 2, 2001, as Phyllis Mable Appreciation Day, complete with t-shirts that asked, "Have you hugged your Phyllis today?" The unofficial count for hugs was over 50.

Why do students hug her? "I honestly have an interest in their welfare and opportunities," says Mable. "I think students like to share some things about themselves. They like to talk informally ­ in the student union or on the street or in the dining hall. I talk to a lot of students in the dining hall. I've learned a few things from them."

And they've learned a few things from her. Part of Mable's legacy to Longwood is helping to "create a student community. Putting forth the effort to make this place feel like a community where people can belong. We get the structures in place where students can connect and then it becomes their responsibility," she says.

Preparing students for life's responsibilities is not all coursework any more. Service learning and leadership programs, new directions for some institutions, are well developed at Longwood College, thanks in large measure to Phyllis Mable. Students follow up hours of community service volunteer work with reflection on "what do I want out of this and what do I want out of my life?"

As for leadership programs, they are central to the mission of the college set when President Patricia Cormier initiated the Five-Year Strategic Plan: to develop citizen leaders for the common good. For the past four years, Student Affairs has sponsored one Saturday in fall semester as Citizen Leader Day when all students are invited to join a visiting speaker in evaluating what it means to be citizen leaders. A spring leadership awards program is one of Mable's favorites: "When we have 250 parents and family there and about 160 students celebrating the fine things that students do." This year President Cormier announced the renaming of the top leadership award. Said Cormier,"I hereby declare that from today and forever more the president's award is suitably named the Phyllis L. Mable Award in honor of the best Vice President for Student Affairs in the United States of America."

Students. Mable says they're "good souls." Dr. Tim Pierson says that Mable, more than any other professional he has worked with, is "centered on working for and about students." Pierson has worked with Mable for nine years and upon her retirement becomes the vice president for student affairs and dean of students. He says, "I learned a lot from Phyllis. You can't be around somebody that dedicated without being touched in many ways."

Student Affairs staff like Elsie Angus know well the Phyllis trademarks: her "distinctive laugh that can be heard from one end of the floor to the other," that she has a philosophy of early-to-rise and a penchant for morning coffee, and that she will meet with a student early in the morning or late in the evening, whenever the student is available. Mable also is known for her notes of encouragement and for remembering other people's birthdays, for delighting in taking people out to dinner and for always demanding good service.

She brought to Longwood an authentic personality, untiring dedication and nationally recognized professional accomplishment. She leaves having earned the kind of tribute paid by Amy Bradley, class of '00, in a recent letter: "You are caring, concerned, compassionate, passionate about higher education, and dedicated to making a positive difference in this crazy world." The letter ends, "You are loved."

Phyllis often says to students ­ "live, love, learn and leave a legacy." At Longwood, she has followed her own good advice.