“Pretty remarkable”: Brian and Carol Trecek reflect on three decades together at the dental school

For the past 30 years, every Marquette University School of Dentistry graduate has come to know Brian and Carol Trecek.

The husband-and-wife duo's roles are vital, yet juxtaposed: Brian, as director of admissions, recruits and eventually welcomes each new class of 100 dental students; Carol, the school's director of continuing education and alumni relations, is the main point of contact for the thousands who have graduated from the state's only dental school.

"Around 2,500 of the last people who have come to this dental school, I recruited to come here," Brian says, "and 97% of those people have graduated in four years. That's pretty remarkable."

But the newest class of future dentists - the Class of 2028 - will be the last of his recruiting lineage, as Brian is set to retire this month.

The Treceks are firsthand witnesses to and key facilitators of the School of Dentistry's transformation from when they started in the 1990s to its current status as one of the premier institutions in the country. Now, as Brian prepares to pass the torch and Carol plans to continue making progress in her position, they both reflect on those changes and their individual impact on the school.

Brian and Carol graduated from Marquette a few years apart, but both almost immediately began their professional careers in the university's Office of Undergraduate Admissions. They started dating not long after Carol started working full time in 1986. In 1993, a few years after they were married, Carol was offered a newly created role in the dental school to manage continuing education and alumni relations.

"When Carol made the move to the dental school, that was the only time in our married life when we didn't work together," Brian explains. "Everybody always asks how weird it is to work with your wife, but I've basically never not worked with my wife."

Brian took over dental school admissions in 1996 following a transitional period for the school, which faced closure in the late '80s due to enrollment and financial struggles. Some alumni felt jaded by their dental school experience, Carol says. Former Dean Ken Zachariasen and former Interim Dean Tom Rypel, who brought Carol and Brian on board, respectively, helped lay the groundwork that turned the school around.

The couple also recognizes the significant contributions of Dr. William Lobb, dean from 1997 until 2023. Under Lobb's leadership, Marquette introduced major changes to the curriculum and secured funding to build and open the current School of Dentistry building in 2002, putting it on par with the nation's top dental institutions.

"The year we moved into this building, we had 1,600 applications and we were ecstatic," Brian says. "A few years later, we had over 3,000 applications. We really haven't slowed down since then."

Yet a state-of-the-art facility isn't the only reason enrollment and overall talent increased over the years. Lobb himself credits the Treceks for their progressive initiatives.

"Brian's impact on the dental admissions process over his years of service was quite significant," Lobb says. "His leadership helped shift the emphasis from class rank and grades as the major criteria for admissions to include a more holistic review of each candidate."

Trecek instituted a formal interview process, and coordinated shadowing experiences and other recruiting mechanisms to bring students to Marquette.

Carol, meanwhile, carved out her role and strengthened the alumni base with more year-round programs and events. The results have shown higher attendance at reunions, expanded continuing education seminars and more interaction on social media.

"Carol's organizational skills, her ability to work effectively with others developing contemporary and collaborative programs, and outreach to alumni through various contacts and events has resulted in an exceptional foundation for dental school alumni on all fronts," Lobb says.

The connective tissue for the Treceks - besides their 35 years of marriage - is their shared pride for the School of Dentistry. After all, they've combined for nearly 60 years of service to the school, and nearly 80 combined at Marquette overall.

"And yet, I feel like there's still more work to be done," Carol says.

That includes being on the cutting edge of continuing education programs and engaging an expansive alumni network. One of Carol's goals is making sure Dr. Elsbeth Kalenderian, who started as dean last August, is an integral part of those events and programs to share her vision for the school.

I'm going to miss the quest, the recruitment, the relationship building that makes this place special"

Brian Trecek, director of admissions in the School of Dentistry

For Brian, who has spent nearly 40 years recruiting 18-to-24-year-olds to Marquette, the time feels right to step away.

"This place has been around a really long time - long before we came and it's going to be here long after we leave," Brian reflects. "The iterations of it change; the faces change. I am enormously proud of the success we have experienced here during our years of service to the school."

There will be life adjustments, of course. Brian is looking forward to relaxing during the fall, which was his "busy season" for the past 40 years. Carol jokes that she's sad to be losing her carpool driver, and admits it'll be strange not to see him in his office down the hall on the first floor of the dental school.

"As Brian's announced his retirement, I've heard from a lot of alumni who talk about the part he played in them coming here," she says. "How much time he took with them and how personal it was - things that they didn't necessarily find in other dental schools."

"There can be a perception of a director of admissions at a professional school spending time in a mahogany office cozied up by the fireplace, but that has not been my experience," Brian says. "We receive 3,000 applications not simply because we are a private school that accepts students from all over the country. We have worked and recruited relentlessly to have Marquette School of Dentistry become a school of first choice. And that's what I'm going to miss more than anything else; I'm going to miss the quest, the recruitment, the relationship building that makes this place special."

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