Students gather for last keg with McKaig

Students came together Saturday for the last root beer kegger with Dean of Students Dick McKaig in the Wright Quad formal lounge.

Students were able to ask questions as McKaig continued the 6 year-old tradition “Keg with Dean McKaig,” where students’ voices were heard while the dean enjoyed his root beer in a frosted mug.

“The event makes it much easier and more comfortable to talk because it’s in such a small setting,” said attendee and junior Kirsten Ellison.

A variety of topics were covered, from new changes coming to the campus to diversity, one of IU’s biggest challenges and McKaig’s biggest frustrations.

McKaig said that despite the school’s wonderful diversity of events and opportunities, the campus does not have the real diversity that students will see once they are out in the real world. Students can see the most diversity is the week before residence halls open, he said.

“Everyone will talk to anyone, but then the following week people will just go back to their comfort zones,” McKaig said.

With this year marking McKaig’s 17th and last year as dean, many of the questions required him to reminisce on his favorite IU memories, including IU basketball and the NCAA Championships for which he was here.

When one student asked if there was anything he would do over again, McKaig lamented about being absent from the 2002 NCAA game against the University of Maryland. He was instead at the Assembly Hall viewing party.

“Unfortunately, the dean of students is always voted to stay behind,” he said.

Along with the good times during McKaig’s years at IU, he also remembered the bad times, such as mourning the loss of students.

“Crisis situations have the tendency to test you, and if you survive, they shape you,” he said.

After July, when McKaig officially steps down, he said he plans on spending a few months out of town in Phoenix to relax.

After spending those months in Phoenix, his plan is to have no plan, “before I run out of money,” he said.

Second-year organizer and junior Shane Brazeal considered the event a success, realizing it was hard to get students to come to an early Saturday afternoon event.

Still, this year had a much bigger turnout than the past few years.

“We polished off about 15 pizzas this year when last year it was only five,” he said.
Although Brazeal won’t be at Wright next year, he said he hopes there will be similar events in the future with the new dean.

After accepting a plaque from Brazeal and politely refusing to do a keg stand, McKaig and the rest of the students had one more drink for the road.

“IU does a great job making a big school feel smaller,” Ellison said. “How often can this happen, where the dean of students will talk to random students?”