Understanding the connection between healthy decision making in college and lifestyle choices after graduation has always interested Jonathan Gibralter G’96. As a Ph.D. student in child and family studies, he explored the relationship between college lifestyles and a person’s future life course. Might a 1970s graduate live a more liberal lifestyle than graduates from the 1980s or 1990s? His research concluded a person’s decade of graduation did not impact future lifestyle decisions. Today, his thorough understanding of human development provides a foundation critical in his role as the 19th president of Wells College.
Gibralter is recognized nationally as an expert thought leader on curbing binge drinking and promoting responsible behavior on college campuses. “I didn’t set out to have a national reputation on college students and alcohol. But the work needed to be done,” he says. “College presidents must be willing to take a stand on this issue, to be role models, to set a level of expectation for their students, to just do the right thing to save lives.”
Gibralter co-chairs the National Institute for Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) President’s Working Group to Address Harmful Student Drinking. Sought out regularly as a leading voice on preventing dangerous college-age drinking and related harms, he has provided expert testimony for the U.S. Department of Education and Congress. Honors for his work include a $50,000 national Presidential Leadership Award from Outside the Classroom, The Gordie Foundation, and a group of seven major higher education organizations for his leadership in fighting dangerous drinking, with which he created an endowment to fund alcohol education programs.
Gibralter began his career in higher education with the State University of New York system. After appointments as a faculty member, academic program director, and associate dean at Morrisville State College, he served as dean of academic affairs, campus dean, and interim president in the community college ranks.
He didn’t intend to become a college president, a role he has held for the past 16 years at Farmingdale State College, Frostburg State University, and since July 2015 at Wells College, a school of nearly 600 students in Aurora, New York. “I thought I’d be a teacher,” he says. “I’ve always felt passionate that higher education is important because students are our future. We have a responsibility to the next generation”.
Gibralter earned a B.A. in psychology from the State University of New York at Binghamton, a master’s degree in counseling psychology from New York University, and a doctorate in child and family studies from Syracuse University. During his tenure as president at Frostburg State, he earned an M.B.A. from the University of Maryland.
Of his studies in the College for Human Development (now Falk College), Gibralter fondly recalls emeriti professors Harlan London, Robert Pickett and his advisor, Eleanor Macklin. While at Syracuse, Gibralter met his wife, Laurie, who earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in social work.
“Syracuse University always has a place in my heart and in my life,” he says. In speaking of memorable counseling and child development courses, Gibralter’s favorites were “any courses with Dr. Macklin. She was a wonderful teacher and mentor who was intelligent, kind-hearted, and incredibly generous with her time.”
Following in Professor Macklin’s footsteps, mentoring students is a priority for Gibralter. In a Fall 2015 Huffington Post blog feature, “A Call for Mentorship and Meaningful Relationships,” Gibralter speaks passionately about making connections with students, “from encouraging a student to study abroad even if they have never been out of the country, encouraging them to engage in faculty-led research and present their findings when students have not yet recognized their aptitude for the subject matter, or encouraging first-generation students to continue their studies in graduate school when they have never considered the possibility of further learning.”
Gibralter is active on social media and continues teaching online. From student convocation to honors ceremonies, he embraces all opportunities to interact with students, even if it means occasionally keeping the same late-night hours they do. At a late-night study breakfast in the dining hall, Gibralter, along with Wells College administration, faculty and staff, served meals to 500 students. “I scooped eggs for close to two hours so our students could have adequate nutrition as they began studying for finals,” he says.
“College students are our future. If you can really connect with a student so college is more than memorizing and sitting in class, that person has a chance for a meaningful life and career.”