The College of Continuing Education will soon bid farewell to a strong business leader, mentor and role model. Alice Tom, who served as dean of the college for 17 years, will retire at the end of this semester.

Joseph F. Sheley, provost and vice president of Academic Affairs, said Tom is the face of the department.

“Having Dean Alice Tom at the helm of the College of Continuing Education for 17 years has translated to consistency in leadership and an entrepreneurial approach,” Sheley said. “Dean Tom has been recognizable among regional and state leaders as the person to whom to go to with ideas and needs.”

Sheley has worked with Tom for the last 15 years. He said he appreciates their collaborative efforts to help make the campus better.

“Dean Tom’s experience made working with her fairly easy,” Sheley said. “I could depend upon her to keep me apprised of issues and also to bring me new ideas to integrate better the mission of the College of Continuing Education with that of Academic Affairs.”

Tom said she has worked closely with her staff and the campus administration to build college programs to be recognized regionally, nationally and internationally. She said this semester, for instance, the college is hosting exchange students from Japan to take part in the English Language Institute that the college offers.

The College of Continuing Education has 100 staff members, but Tom worked closest with Jenni Murphy, senior director of marketing and communications. Their offices are located right next to each other.

“She has meant so many things to the College of Continuing Education,” Murphy said. “When I came to work for the college, I met her at a point when she was expanding her vision of what the college could do for the campus and the community.”

Murphy said Tom’s drive led to the construction of the building the College of Continuing Education now calls home.

“Through her leadership, I was a part of the effort to get Napa Hall built,” Murphy said. “It allowed the college to have all of its classes and administrative staff under one roof. (Napa Hall) has increased the quality of services that we could offer to state agencies and to the public.”

Murphy said that before Napa Hall was built in December 2002, the college was spread out among three different buildings on campus. Classes were held downtown and at several other locations.

She said Tom created a home and a sense of purpose for all the college staff by allowing them to be themselves and explore ways to help the college be at its peak.

Murphy recalls a time when Tom’s personality was reflected outside of the workplace.

“We wanted to reward the staff through having a small drawing for little items, but we didn’t have a lot of money. No one in education really does. And so I suggested we go to the dollar store. There we can get a lot of little treats,” Murphy said. “She looked at me like I was wacky, but we went anyway. We were walking around in the store and she was saying like the commercial, “Is everything really a dollar? Are you sure it’s a dollar?'”

When the college has exchange students come and stay, Murphy said Tom is the first to volunteer and help with the cleanup after the students leave.

“She is the first to get in line and grab rubber gloves to help clean the apartments. She will bring her own carpet cleaner to help clean up stains,” Murphy said. “She is so down-to-earth and would not ask us to do anything that she was not willing to do.”

In today’s marketplace, where it is sometimeshard to find female mentors, Murphy said Tom has been the biggest role model for her.

“She is the most amazing mentor I have ever had. I cannot imagine what it will be like without her,” Murphy said. “She really brings the best out of me by pushing me and not saying “No, you cannot try this.’ She does this by encouraging me and letting me dabble in things that I feel will help the college.”

Tom attributes her success as the dean of the College of Continuing Education to the people she works with.

“I am incredibly lucky to have worked with my staff and other individuals here on campus,” Tom said. “The many people that come to work in our building could have worked somewhere else. They chose to work here because they believe in our mission and the support we can give to the university.”

Looking back at her legacy at Sacramento State, Tom would like others to know she did her job to the best of her ability.

“I feel that I did a pretty good job,” Tom said. “If I had to give myself an evaluation of my 17 years here, I feel that I would fall somewhere in the top5 percent of the class.”

Matt Harrington can be reached at [email protected]