Jo Arney

Jo Arney died on Nov. 19, 2020, of a serious medical condition. She was a professor of political science and academic affairs and most recently served as director of Student Success. Friends and colleagues remember the 44-year-old for not just the quality of her work, but the boundless vitality with which she lived. The Jo Arney Student Success Scholarship was established to honor her memory and dedication to her profession and the students of UWL.

A first-generation college student herself, Jo received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, her master’s in philosophy from Colorado State University — where she met her husband, Jeremy, who is also a professor of political science at UWL — and her doctorate of public affairs from the University of Colorado-Denver.

Nine years older than her twin sisters, and 17 years older than her brother, she paved the way for her siblings, even inspiring her sister to go through the same public affairs program in Colorado and teach in the same field.“She talked a lot about working with students to help them succeed, and how you could make a difference yourself. But if you can influence others, you can make an even bigger difference,” said Jo’s sister, Kerry Kuenzi, who is now an assistant professor of public and environmental affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. “Recognizing that she was able to do that was really the inspiration to following in her footsteps,” Kuenzi said. “It wasn’t always an explicit conversation, but being able to just always see her as an exemplar of something that I could do, was really helpful to me.”

Jo wove her own experiences into her work often, and colleagues remember her success in connecting with students was because she could relate to them. “Sometimes it surprises people how passionate faculty are about students and about student success,” said Betsy Morgan, the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at UW-L. “Jo is that sort-of extraordinary example of someone who spent her entire life trying to make college obtainable for students.” “She would talk the talk and walk the walk,” Morgan said,” because that’s what her own background was.”

Jo wanted to radicalize the college experience, many of her colleagues said, wanting to shift a system that had for so long simply served students, to give students a seat at the table in crafting their own success.“She was kind of famous for her line, that, ‘If we accept student’s tuition money, we have a responsibility to make sure that they do well in college,’” said Tim Dale, professor of political science and public administration at UW-L.“She thought that it was all of our responsibility to make sure that people didn’t fall through the cracks,” Dale said.
“She believed that everybody at UW-L belonged there, every student belonged there,” said Andrew Ives, assistant director of Student Life.

In the middle of Jo’s career at UW-L, she took a sabbatical to work on a national campaign with American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU), to develop programs for first-year student success. Eventually, this work led her back to UW-L, where a first-year seminar course was developed, a required course meant to propel students into success from the get-go. The impact Jo had on students is clear and widespread. On a website dedicated to sharing memories of Jo, students from all walks of life have shared stories of times when Jo helped them or believed in them, steered them in the right direction, or just gave them a well-needed laugh. “The stories,” Dale said, “are a long list of students who felt like they were at rock bottom, or felt like they were going to drop out of college, and then it turns out that they have a long and successful career because Jo helped them to see that they could.”

While a student at UW-L, Mark Moralez was invited by Jo to speak at a national AASCU conference she helped coordinate on the future of student-centered experiences. The speech was given in three parts — what the college experience had been like in the past, what it was now, and what it should be going forward. Jo wanted a student to give the last speech, symbolizing what the future should look like, and tapped Moralez for it. After the conference, Moralez said Jo was proud of him, and never stopped working with him. She offered him research opportunities and helped him network, and still kept in touch even after he graduated.

As a first-generation, low-income student of color, Moralez said that Jo was an ally, and gave marginalized students time that many faculty wouldn’t, and often helped break down barriers for them. Moralez graduated from UW-L in the spring and is now pursuing a master’s degree in public affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a place he said he wouldn’t be if it weren’t for Jo giving him a chance. “She just had a way of encouraging you and having you realize your worth,” Moralez said. “And that’s what she really did for me." But the support he received from Jo went beyond just professional advancement, and Moralez said she became like family. When he was stuck on campus one Christmas break without any money, Jo bought him groceries. And when he wasn’t going to go see his family over summer vacation who lives across the state in Milwaukee, Jo helped him get a car. She invited him to Skunk Hollow to watch football games and checked-in on him often. Moralez called Jo his “mom away from home.”

“And nobody knew she was doing that,” said Bald. “She was his family away from home, and she did that for a lot of students.” Moralez said that the last time he and Jo talked, he was on the verge of giving up on graduate school, but that Jo stopped him in his tracks, bombarding him with compliments and laughter. “She reminds you of who you are, and who you can be, and that we’re all here to change the world. And she did that, she changed the world in her own way,” he said. “You can change the world for the better through compassion and kindness, and just believing in the good in people,” Moralez said, “and she was the embodiment of that.”