Farewell tribute to Karen Clemence
Karen, Lafayette was so pleased to welcome you as our assistant dean of studies on Nov. 26, 2001. An inspiring adviser, you offered our students keen insights, which were effective in guiding them to take full advantage of their Lafayette education. You also successfully managed a broad spectrum of projects that were assigned to the Office of Advising and Co-Curricular Programs. In recognition of your outstanding service to our students and the College, the College honored you with the Distinguished Service Award in 2010. In 2014, you were promoted to senior associate dean of advising and co-curricular programs.
The Lafayette community admired the way in which you effectively filled the broad spectrum of the roles within our Office of Advising and Co-Curricular Programs at various times throughout your tenure at the College. For example, you were effective in serving as the class dean for each of our classes. As our First-Year Class Dean, you coached our new students on how to benefit from a college education and choose the focus of their Lafayette experience. For all of our classes, you offered wisdom to those students who were struggling and those who needed insights about how to accomplish their vision for their College education. You also inspired our seniors to take the necessary strides to successfully complete their Lafayette education and launch their careers. Since your wisdom and compassion benefited them, many of our students continued to reach out to you even after their graduation to offer you updates on their career, to seek your validation of their career decisions, and to express their gratitude for the impact that you had on their lives.
As Lafayette’s pre-law adviser, you supported our students who sought to launch a legal career. When you joined the Northeast Association of Pre-law Advisors in 2005, you were chosen to take a leadership role within that organization. After serving two terms on the association’s board of directors, you were elected president. In that role, you created the conference that supported your peers in enhancing the effectiveness of pre-law advisement at approximately 400 colleges and universities and representatives from ABA-approved law schools.
In addition to your advisory roles, the members of the Lafayette College community are also grateful for your efforts to manage major projects which the Office of Advising and Co-Curricular Programs was tasked with. You made outstanding efforts to create our annual Honors Convocation ceremony and manage our honors thesis program. We also valued your leadership of our academic conduct policies and procedures.
Your dedication to the well-being of our students and their academic success was inspiring not only to Lafayette’s students but also to your colleagues. Throughout your almost two decades of employment at the College, you effectively stewarded Lafayette’s academic integrity. You worked tirelessly and put in many hours to ensure that your efforts were accomplished effectively and at a very high quality.
Karen, we greatly valued the insights that you offered to our students. Your guidance and heartwarming dedication to their success not only benefited our students, but it also served as a catalyst for Lafayette’s renown. Please know that you are missed by your colleagues. We hope you enjoy your retirement.