Jeff Mackay’s first official Linfield title was “student body president,” bestowed by his fellow students in 1986 and then again in 1987. When he graduated in 1988, the college hired him as director of student activities. Since then, he has worked in “nearly all aspects of the student’s life outside the classroom,” including but not limited to residential life, conduct and student care. As of Thursday, Linfield President Miles K. Davis has given Mackay a new title: vice president for student affairs, a position he will assume Feb. 1.
The announcement of the job change brought immediate reactions from Mackay’s team and the larger university community where he has spent his entire work life.
“I’m thrilled to hear the news — Jeff has been a valuable colleague for decades,” said Debbie Harmon Ferry ’90, the director of alumni and parent engagement. “His commitment to our students and to Linfield is unparalleled, and he is always looking at the latest trends, learning from colleagues and picking up information on how to best serve our students.”
His Linfield career has been extensive — director of residence life, associate dean of students and dean of students, a position he assumed in 2019 before being named interim vice president of student affairs and dean of students in August 2022. He holds a Bachelor of Science from Linfield in mathematics, and earned a Master of Science in higher education administration from Portland State University in 1995.
Mackay described his job as some of the most rewarding work imaginable.
“It’s funny — no high school student checks a box that says, ‘I want to go into higher education student affairs,’” he said. “You get into this work because your student experience was transformational. You had a mentor that really helped you, you grew in so many ways, and then, you realize, ‘Wow, someone will pay me to do the same for others.’”
Mackay’s team of nearly 30 spans multiple departments, from Student Health, Wellness and Counseling to the Office of the Chaplain. But while the team is varied in expertise and day-to-day work, Mackay said, the focus is always the same: how do you put the student at the center of the work we do?
“That’s what student-affairs educators do every day. We spend a great deal of time thinking about how we focus on the development of the whole student, to help them be successful at Linfield and beyond — what does that look like on the emotional level, the physical level, the intellectual level, the career level, helping impart the financial acuity and real-world knowledge?” he said. “We think about all the things that make successful humans and how we as a division facilitate that.”
To that end, he said, his team has a renewed emphasis on whole-person wellness, which includes fostering connections between students via campus groups, events and even just sprucing up communal spaces.
“A little bit of noise is a good thing on a college campus — I want to hear laughter, I want to hear students chatting, see students gathered in the Fred Meyer Lounge, whether that’s studying or procrastinating from studying,” he said. “I want our students to understand what it is to be a healthy human, to leave this institution with a solid foundation of well-being that allows you to handle life’s curveballs.”
Since he was first hired as director of student activities in 1988, he said, the scope of the work has broadened — for example, this interview was conducted during a break at a convention on restorative justice.
“There’s some great insight here on ways to look at harm caused by a student in a conduct issue, and how we can help those who have been harmed articulate what they need and can make them whole,” he said, bringing up the example of someone blasting music at 3 a.m. in a residence hall.
“Jeff has been here a long time, and he knows Linfield from the roots up. He has a deep reservoir of knowledge about student affairs across higher education broadly and a particular familiarity with Linfield’s issues that make him uniquely qualified for this job,” said President Davis. “The combination of the two will serve our students well.”
The only problem with making that VP title permanent? It leaves Mackay less time to spend with students, which he said is his favorite part of the job. He still shows up to student groups as often as possible and takes the temperature on campus by chatting up folks as they wait for their drinks from Starbucks.
“It’s rewarding, it’s engaging, it’s fun, it keeps us young,” he said. “And the students we have are incredible. They’re hardworking, they’re dedicated, they want to engage, they want to be involved with more than one thing. They want to make their experience the best it can be. It’s a wonderful group to work with, and a wonderful community to be a part of.”