Associate Dean for Faculty and Curriculum Michael Rossi recently announced he would retire at the end of the 2024 spring semester. He announced his decision to the campus community via email.
Rossi has worked in a variety of roles on campus for over 32 years, including as associate dean for the College of Arts and Sciences. When he joined the university, Rossi said he came to campus to build a master’s program in biotechnology and was drawn by the opportunity to work with students.
“I was looking for a place where putting student teaching first was the priority, not the R1 research place where you spend all your time doing research and occasionally see a student,” Rossi said. “I like to do things where I come up with activities for the students in class, particularly things that bring them together in biology,”
Rossi developed his teaching style on the job and found that hands-on activities are well suited to a laboratory. The experience gave him “a chance to get to know the students individually in a big lecture hall. I started out straight lecture as it was all I knew how to do, but over the years you begin to see what works and what doesn’t. You just adapt.”
Rossi continued to say that 32 years is sufficient time to love a job.
“It started with just falling in love with the students,” he said. “I love being with the students and then as I progressed into administration, I also got the opportunity to not just work with the students, but to support the faculty as well. I think this is a great university, and it’s made great progress over the years. I see so much value here, and it is constantly growing, that’s what’s kept me here.”
“Going into the administration wasn’t what I had planned. But it opened up for me. and I found that I could do a lot of good there. So you don’t have to feel like you’re pigeonholed. You can always find other things to do and find opportunities if you’re just open to them.”
Teaching was not his original career goal; that came as he worked his way toward his undergraduate degree. “I knew that that’s where I wanted to be, that I wanted to be in a place where I could be teaching,” said Rossi. “I feel comfortable doing that and being able to support students.”
Among his many accomplishments and involvements on campus, Rossi is especially proud of the school’s partnership with Yale University, the Yale Prison Education Initiative, where professors volunteer to teach inmates at MacDougall Walker Correctional Institute and Danbury Federal Correctional Institute. The program recently had its first graduating class last year. Rossi said he’s most proud of the program’s impact on inmates.
“You know, it’s a small program, but it is really changing their lives,” he said. “A couple of them have said this is the only real rehabilitation they get. And so we’re hoping this gives them tools when they leave to be able to not be repeat offenders.”
Rossi suggested both students and faculty of the campus community approach college as those graduating inmates go about their chance at education.
“I think the most important thing is to always look for what your opportunities are,” he said. “You know, it may not be what you expected to do, but if you just keep yourself open and see what doors open for you and …be willing to take it.”
Despite retirement, Rossi said that campus may not have seen the last of him. “I would love to come back to campus for special events, not necessarily as a teacher, but show my support through activities such as homecoming or even alumni events,” he said.
