WestConn Administrator Chronicles Danbury Campus Growth

DANBURY, Conn. -- Daryle Dennis has seen it all in the three decades he has worked at Western Connecticut State University.

Daryle Dennis has been assistant dean of student affairs at Western Connecticut State University for the past decade.
Photo Credit: *Nicole Kasseris*

by Nicole Kasseris

03/17/2015 5:00 a.m.

A native of Omaha, Neb., Dennis is a 1979 graduate of Western himself and a longtime Danbury resident.

In his time in Danbury, Western has grown from a four-building facility downtown “into a sprawling new campus” on the city's West Side, Dennis said, pointing to the completion of the newest addition: the Visual & Performing Arts Center on the West Side campus.

For 10 years, Dennis has served as Western’s assistant dean of student affairs. In that job, he oversees many activities on the campus, including Greek Life, multicultural student affairs, the newly re-established Parent Association, the judicial affair appeal process and much more within the campus community.

Dennis stays very active in the campus community and can be found at many of the events, including the homecoming game, parade and even the bonfire.

He loves to be involved with the students to make sure they are enjoying their time at the university and says he is there to listen to any sort of issues. One of his tasks is to run the Commute Club, making sure that the commuter students are just as involved within the campus as the residential students.

“It’s rewarding to see when students go through school, and I also know their parents from when they were students themselves,” Dennis says of his long tenure at Western.

He has also enjoyed seeing the changes throughout the years on campus. He points to the:

Expansion of the library, which was completed in 2000 and doubled its size.
Completion in 1999 of Warner Hall, which was named after Truman A. Warner, a professor of anthropology and history.
Purchase of Alumni Hall, the former St. Nicholas Byzantine Church, in 1996.
Completion of the O’Neil Center in 1995.
Completion of the West Side Athletic stadium in 2004.
Addition of the state-of-the-art Visual & Performing Arts Center, which officially opened last year and has already welcomed hundreds of guests to experience the creative process at work.

Dennis has had offices in Old Main and on West Side but currently hangs his hat in the student center in Room 227 for any student who wishes to visit him.

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