Director of Residential Life resigns

Aaron Biberstein Co-Editor In Chief

Director of Residential Life Faith Nichols announced her resignation in mid-December. Dean of the College JJ Jackson accepted the resignation and named Dr. Celestino Limas acting director of Residential Life until a permanent director is found, pending a national search.

"When a person makes plans for themselves, its not always the purview of the administration to question it," said Jackson. "I accepted her resignation and that was that."

Jackson declined to comment further on the circumstances of Nichols resignation, citing legal liability. Jackson views this change in leadership as a chance to introduce new blood into the Residential Life infrastructure.

"This is an opportunity for me to talk to all the deans and faculty who worked closely with residential life to see how this position should be changed if it needs to be changed," she said. There will be a search committee formed including students, administration, and faculty to review applicants.

The national search will involve a survey of campuses across the country to find comparative data concerning residential life issues. The position will be advertised in forums, such as the Chronicle of Higher Education and the Conference For Student Affairs Personnel.

The review process, based on student and administrative input, will narrow the search to two or three qualified applicants. These top candidates will meet with the search committee and other notable figures on campus and the search committee will recommend its top candiate to Jackson, who will present that candidate to the President Fran Fergusson.

Jackson said that the most important issue with Residential Life is more closely linking the students academic experience with the living experience. "We want a Residential Life director who appreciates that concept and forms a vision as to how we can move that process along.

"We need more faculty involvement, in addition to the house fellows, and more academically related activities occurring in the residence houses," she said.

Jackson is currently planning a town hall meeting to address students concerns with Residential Life, but has not yet set a date.

Acting Director Limas served as Associate Director of Residential Life during the 2003-2004 school year, and the fall term of 2004-2005. He holds a PH.D in education leadership from the University of Oregon, an M.A. in Special Education from the University of Nebraska, and B.A. in Psychology from the University of Iowa.

Limas said that the major issues Residential Life must resolve are communication and information. One of my priorities is that if a student has a concern, we serve as an audience to that, said Limas.
In order to realize that goal, Limas is scheduling drop-in office hours for all members of the Residential Life staff, and is arranging a process by which students will be able to evaluate their house advisors.

Limas said he fears Residential Life has lost trust with the student body, particularly concerning issues such as the recent infestation of several town houses with mold.

In response, Residential Life will be conducting TH renovation over the summer, and not all town houses will be available for summer programming. The College has hired the architectural firm S/L/A/M Collaborative Architectural to assess the damage to the town houses.

Limas declined to comment on Nichols departure, as did Nichols herself. The Office of Residential Life came under criticism by the student body in October of 2004, when it was discovered that two town houses were infested with infectious mold, forcing the evacuation of seniors living in the houses to the residence halls.

Residential Life experienced another controversy in March of 2004 when Raymond and Strong house advisor Katherine Outlaw resigned due to strained relations with student leaders. Finally, the office was again the subject of criticism in February of 2004 when it announced that due to a large class approximately 164 seniors would be denied apartment housing.