“You need to understand the holistic, integrative nature of family and consumer sciences to see the big picture.”

Students in the Introduction to Family and Consumer Sciences class, co-taught by Dean Sharon Y. Nickols and Associate Dean Jan Hathcote, have heard the phrase on a recurring basis.

The holistic, integrative nature of family and consumer sciences is the passion of Dean Nickols, a passion that hasn’t ebbed as she ends her tenure as dean and returns to a full-time faculty position.

 Contemplating how to sort 15 years of files – which to leave for a new dean, which to send to the university archives and which to take to her new faculty office – Nickols also is focused on the future – filling nine faculty openings in the next few months, negotiating for additional space to ease the cramped confines of Dawson and Spiers halls and continuing to focus on a variety of development opportunities, including a deferred giving campaign directed to alumni.

“I told Provost (Arnett) Mace and President (Michael) Adams that I wasn’t going to be a lame-duck dean,” Nickols said. “We have too many projects under way for me to slow down.”

For those who have worked with Nickols, both within the college and in her roles at the national level, Nickols’ work ethic is legendary, as is her commitment to family and consumer sciences at all levels.

“Sharon Nickols is truly one of the pivotal keepers of the Betty Lamp flame,” said Don Bower, president of the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences and head of the FACS child and family development department, referring to the enduring symbol of family and consumer sciences. “Not only has her leadership as dean solidified the national presence of our college, but when a national spokesperson is needed for the profession, she’s always the prime choice.”

During the first three months after arriving at Georgia from the University of Illinois, Nickols and Wanda Grogan, then-director of alumni relations and continuing education programs, traveled the state.
“I think we put 2,500 miles on Wanda’s car,” Nickols said. “It was a good way to get started knowing the alumni and letting them get to know me.”

Nickols describes herself as more of an “internal” dean rather than an “external” one, but her efforts at fund-raising for the college have led to a nearly 15-fold increase in professorships, scholarships, study abroad funds and other external support.

“Dean Nickols’ has embraced the importance of fund raising as a way to strengthen the college’s academic programs,” according to Katrina Bowers, FACS director of development.
For example, the college had no study abroad opportunities when Nickols arrived in Athens. Now, courses have been taught in London, Costa Rica, Ghana, Ecuador and multiple sites in Mexico, and study abroad stipends are available to students.

“I had benefited so much from my experience as a Fulbright scholar in Malawi and as part of a faculty exchange in India,” she said. “I was committed to our students having an international awareness.”
As Nickols reflects on her years as dean the memories involving students and faculty shine bright.
“Working with students and seeing their accomplishments, both while they’re students and after graduation, and bringing in new faculty and nurturing their talents, those are the areas that are so important to me,” she said.

Theresa Glasheen, a senior in FACS education is among the undergraduates who have seen their relationship with Nickols develop into true friendship.
“I can’t remember when we first met or how we got to know each other so well,” Glasheen said. “I haven’t made any formal appointments with Dean Nickols, but we’ve talked so often that she’s really helped me map out my future.”

Many administrators find it impossible to continue their teaching and research efforts once they move into positions as demanding as deanships, but Nickols said she was determined not to give anything up when she moved to Athens.

“I had friends tell me I couldn’t teach, conduct research and be dean,” she recalled. “But I was convinced I could do it.”

She eventually found she couldn’t. Nickols sacrificed much of her research efforts, focusing instead on opportunities to teach undergraduates and work with students in a variety of ways, including organizing the annual Leadership FACS Retreat, a two-day trip outside of Athens for the presidents and vice presidents of student organizations, the FACS Ambassadors and Legislative Aides.

“During my first years in Athens, I taught a family resource management class each winter quarter,” she said.

Since fall 1998 Nickols and Associate Dean Hathcote have co-taught the FACS 2000 class every semester, an introduction to the field of family and consumer sciences that is required of every graduate. This class has ensured that 3,728 undergraduates have learned about the history and the future of family and consumer sciences.

A substitute for empirical research has come in the form of speeches. Nickols frequently has been requested to speak at state, national and international meetings.

“Preparing for those speeches has been a way for me to keep current on trends and issues affecting the field of family and consumer sciences and to sustain the discipline of writing,” she said.

There have been low points in Nickols tenure, particularly four years of budget cuts beginning in 2000.

“My lowest point was after we had made it through three years of budget cuts. We thought the economy was improving and finances were going to stabilize, but they didn’t and we faced another year of cuts,” she recalled.

Nickols worked to hide her stress. “I sincerely believe that one of the absolute responsibilities of deans is to maintain morale,” she said. She also relied on her husband, Sam, to provide a listening ear.  “He’s a good sounding board for many of the issues I bring home from work with me.”

He also served in that role as Nickols contemplated returning to a faculty position, recalling that they discussed her retirement, but waited until vacancies in two department head positions and the associate dean for outreach were filled.

After retiring from the deanship, Nickols will return to a full-time teaching and research position for the first time in 20 years. She plans to make the most of it.

“I plan to spend time learning how to conduct historical research,” she said. “I want to explore what was occurring at midwestern universities in the field of home economics prior to the Lake Placid Conferences, which have generally been viewed as the birthplace of the field.”

She also plans to teach and hopes to work with graduate students.

Nickols knows she’ll leave the deanship with some goals unmet, specifically the construction of an addition to the Dawson-Spiers buildings that has been a part of the college’s strategic plan goals for the past several years.

“I wish I had realized sooner how much our college was going to grow,” she said. “Eight years ago, we began to be aware that space was a concern. Then it became a pressing matter and now it’s a crisis.”

But the enrollment growth and its accompanying growth in faculty and staff bode well for the field overall, she said. In addition, the demand for graduates in traditional and emerging areas is high.

“There are several aspects of family and consumer sciences that make it unique,” she said. “The maxim of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts certainly applies to family and consumer sciences. We see the interrelationships of life and recognize that’s how the human ecosystem works. It’s very simple and very complicated at the same time.”

In May, Nickols will don her academic regalia and officiate as dean of the college convocation for a final time. She’ll congratulate the undergraduate and graduate students who cross the stage and wish them well in their future endeavors. She’ll also consider the gift her parents gave her when they encouraged her to pursue a college education – an opportunity not available to them. She’ll remember Dean Doretta Hoffman who encouraged Nickols and her classmates to pursue graduate study as they neared completion of their bachelor’s degrees at Kansas State University in the mid-1960s.

Nickols acknowledges the challenge of letting go and passing the responsibility and roles to someone else.

“Philosophically I know it’s important to have new leadership,” she said. “There’s also an emotional component that comes with retiring as dean. It’s like closing the cover on a great book you’ve loved reading.”