Deborah Cohen

About

Name: Deborah Cohen  

Title/s: Enrollment Support Assistant      

E-mail: dcohen2@luc.edu 

Department/School/Division: Enrollment Operations      

Campus: LSC 

Years at Loyola: 25 

What is your favorite thing about working at Loyola? The friendly and supportive work environment and beautiful setting on the lake. 

What is your most memorable achievement as a Loyola employee? It’s not really an achievement, but it is a nice memory. Many years ago, when the bulk of Financial Aid documents and correspondence were submitted by mail, I found a brand new book of stamps enclosed with a parent’s letter. Knowing that the stamps must have been inadvertently enclosed with the letter, I returned them to the parent with a short letter of my own. The student’s mother either phoned or wrote back – I can’t remember anymore. I just remember how appreciative she was, and how she wanted to buy me lunch or take me for coffee. I didn’t take her up on her offer, but that interaction has always stayed with me.   

What motivates you to succeed each and every day? Being mindful that how I do my work can have an impact on how students and parents view the university. Remembering that students and parents are at the other end of the documents I process every day, and that they are anxious to get through all the rigamarole – the tedious business of verification, loans, etc. that the students and parents must successfully complete before the students can focus on being a student and enjoy the university experience that made them chose Loyola. I never wanted to be the cause of a student or parent having an unfavorable opinion of Loyola by making the process anymore arduous than it already is, for example, by failing to process their correspondence or documents in a timely manner, or by failing to communicate professionally, clearly, and courteously about incomplete or incorrect document submissions.   

Tell us something most people at Loyola would be surprised to know about you: I once wrote a bad but heartfelt poem about the old Damen Hall when it was being demolished because I’d loved watching the peregrine falcons who so often used that building.