Acorn

Issue date: 2/22/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Drew Chen

Director of Residence Life Christina Rishiy and four resident directors will be leaving the department at the end of this school year. Rishiy and three of the RDs will be leaving Drew University entirely, while Tolley-Brown RD Andre Moore will be moving into a different position at Drew outside of the Residence Life department.

Rishiy, who is in her second year as the director of Residence Life and was previously an RD, attributes this year's high turnover to the ordinary nature of residence life departments at other universities. "Most housing departments lose half of their staff every year. That's the general trend," she said.

"A lot of people, with the exception of the Suites RD and the Hoyt-Asbury RD, have been here for four years. That's abnormal. The RD role tends to have a two-year turnover."

Moore will be moving into one of two positions being created to replace former Athletic Director Tremaine Young."I've been enjoying my time at Drew and the opportunity to move forward and stay at Drew came up and it is a good opportunity."

Drew Chen, who has been RD for HERB Circle since 2004 and is one of the four RDs leaving at the end of the year, echoed Rishiy and Moore's comments. "It's kind of a tiring job," he said. "Even if it weren't for the fact that I'm starting to feel the effects of long nights, I think it's time for me to try something new. I've met a lot of great people, but it's time for something different."

While Rishiy, Chen and Moore put the situation in terms of a normal turnover rate, Jamie Jung ('08), who has been an RA for three years and is currently serving as the Asbury RA, tells a different story.

She acknowledges that being an RD is not a career and that there is turnover, but believes something else may be at work. "It's something people use as a transition," she said. "But the RD role as we've known it for the past couple of years is going to change.

"From what I've heard, it seems that people higher up, like deans and the president are trying to change the RD role in certain ways. And that could affect people's decisions to leave or stay."

Meredith Beck ('08), the hall assistant of Spirituality House, agreed with Jung, but went further in describing how things will change for RDs at Drew in the future.

"The RD job is structured such that RDs have 10 hours every week that they're supposed to be in the office, but that can be any hours between nine and five. Now, they're going to be blocking it out so that 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., everyone will be in the office," she said.

Continued...

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