Mike Yates: A passion for student life and the student experience

By: Hannah Wiley, Assistant Features Editor

Since his start here in August, you might have heard the name Mike Yates around campus. Yates started here this fall as the new assistant vice president and dean of students following the retirement of Matt Mullville. 

Before Canisius, Yates studied physics and mathematics at SUNY Brockport where he discovered his passion for higher education as a resident assistant. Following undergrad, Yates worked at Morrisville State in resident life for a year before starting at UB as the assistant complex director of campus living. He spent 14 years at UB, working as the associate director for resident life in his last 2 years. 

If you don’t already know what his job entails, Yates oversees “housing assignments, the residential experience from RAs to student rights and responsibilities and behaviors in [the] residence halls, Event Services – so large-scale events on campus, any type of union-type-style events in the [student] center, and the student engagement and leadership development office that does about a thousand things,” as he puts it. So, it's safe to say if you haven’t met him yet, he’s probably handling one of his many many jobs. But, out of all the things Yates does on a daily basis, the part of his title he sees as the most sacred is being the dean of students. He explained, “It's one of those things that that is the person that is really supposed to be [someone] that advocates for what students are experiencing, the person that can help other administrators or faculty or staff see the needs of what college students have in any type of generation, see some of the trends and experiences that students have when there are challenges on campus.” To Yates, being the dean of students means giving us a campus where we can have a voice and experience meaningful environments both in and outside of the classroom. 

A lot of what Yates tried to accomplish in his first year at Canisius was learning what the Canisius experience is like on our campus. He hit the ground running in August by meeting with club and organization leaders from C-Block to the United Students Association. Even a whole academic year later, he’s still learning what it looks like to have the Canisius experience. “It is a very unique place, and there is something magical about this place that I think to try to immediately get in and be like, ‘here's where I'm looking to bring us’ wouldn't have been the right thing to do.” A big thing for Yates in his first year was working with Jason Francey and the SELD office to quickly improve the student experience by “trying to figure out a platform that we could scale a little bit more compared to what presence was on campus before,” which they introduced this semester with GriffConnect. 

Just two months into his time on campus, Yates got his first experience with Canisius when it comes to activism. “I think the State of the University was one of the first moments for me where I got to be asked to kind of navigate a very difficult situation that I'm still learning about where this campus is at, and learning about the people that are here.” Having gotten his PhD in Higher Education Administration and focusing his research on activism and protests on college campuses, Yates has seen ways that colleges can look at activism as a learning mechanism, but also how they can navigate those challenging situations and make sure students are heard. Just a few weeks later, he encountered his second experience with the overwhelming passion the Canisius community has for the things they believe in. “I think about some other situations that we've had on campus with students that are engaging with activism and protest, and, you know, maybe on Main Street, on the sidewalks, and, I walked up to them, and it was, ‘you don't have to leave here. You can be here. This is okay. I'm also here to make sure that you understand what your free speech looks like on campus and what your obligation is to engage with that speech and feel supported,’” he said. 

Yates also spends a lot of time connecting with the faculty and staff on campus. Not only that, but also building bridges between them and students to allow them to experience what a small, personalized education has to offer. “The things that students describe is that positive relationship with faculty, and how amazing that is – of the impact they play on here,” Yates explained.

Before his time at Canisius he lived three minutes from campus and drove by Canisus on his commute to UB for 15 years. He also has a wife and a son that just turned three! Fun fact: all of their birthdays are in a two-week time frame, and we happen to be in those two weeks currently, so wish Yates a happy belated birthday if you see him! Chances are you’ll get to meet Yates’ son and wife somewhere on campus because “[his] wife is very happy to come to campus to events. First time that we came to the Phi Sig 5k.” He also can’t drive by the KAC without his son calling it “Petey’s House,” so it's safe to say he’s probably Petey’s biggest fan.

After I had finished asking him my questions, he asked if he could pose a question of his own. He then asked, “What are the questions that you would want to ask that you don't get the chance to ask all the time?” While it was a hard question to answer, the conversation that followed meant a lot to me and I think out of everything I got the chance to talk to him about, this really exemplified how much he cares for this community. Mike Yates is a Griff through and through, whether it be during his working hours connecting with colleagues, supporting students in their experience on campus or outside of work hours showing up to campus events to support. I think he’s someone who everyone on campus should take the time to get to know.