Photo by Genevieve Humphreys

The search committee that has been looking for a new assistant director for fraternity and sorority life and Coates Student Center (CSC) is still in the process of interviewing candidates for the position. The previous assistant director for fraternity and sorority life and CSC, Jeremy Allen, left the position late last semester, and a search committee composed of faculty, staff and students has been working to fill the vacancy since then.

“This position is very unique as it oversees both the fraternity and sorority community and the Coates Student Center,” wrote Esther Kim, assistant director for orientation programs, in an email interview. “We are looking for the right person for the role who has some experience in both functional areas while also contributing to the team of Student Involvement and our leadership initiatives and programming.”

Jamie Thompson, director of Student Involvement, explained that while there has been a significant amount of candidates who want to fill the position, the search committee is still looking for the right person.

“This spring has actually been both busy and interesting for the search committee,” Thompson said. “Esther Kim and I are chairing the search committee, and she and I both attended our national conference for our field and industry. It’s called NASPA, National Association of Student Personnel Administrators. Every year annually there’s a very large search process that happens at that conference called the placement exchange. We participated in that in relationship to this vacancy and ultimately ended up interviewing four individuals and didn’t move forward with any of those individuals.”

Over the last few weeks, five more candidates have been interviewed either over the phone or through a video interview. If applicants move forward after their video interviews, the next step will be having them on campus for interviews.

“We’re looking for someone who has the experience and interest in working with a local fraternity and sorority community that is able to develop relationships with others,” Thompson said. “You can tell that both in looking at their experience but also when you engage with them via the video interviews and on campus. That’s why we also have students as a part of the search committee so they can get a feel for someone who they think is authentic and someone they can trust and who’s going to be an advocate and also support and challenge them.”

In addition to being the assistant director for fraternity and sorority life, the vacant position also includes oversight of the Coates Student Center.

“That’s something we’re looking at internally,” Thompson said. “Is this role still the best place for that job function, or does that need to be somewhere else in Student Involvement? So our team is well aware of some of the things we’re exploring as it relates to that.”

While the position remains vacant, the responsibilities of the role have been shared by Thompson, Kim, Greek Council and Sarah Hantak, a senior who is both a part of the search committee and an intern in the Student Involvement office. Hantak explained what she is looking for in a new assistant director for fraternity and sorority life and CSC as a student.

“We really look for an advocate,” Hantak said. “A lot happens within Greek life and so when things are high we want somebody to be advocating for us as well as when things are low. Also somebody who understands what it’s like to be in a local environment, or somebody who is willing to learn what it’s like to be in a local environment because the community at Trinity is really unique in what it offers and the way that it’s structured.”

Although the search to fill Allen’s position has taken longer than anticipated, it is still a priority in Student Involvement.

“In an ideal world we would have had someone here in the spring,” Thompson said. “What I told the students and the Student Involvement team is that we won’t rush into a decision and we want to make the right decision. Sometimes that means that searches are longer than we would like them to be. But it’s still the top of our mind and a priority for us.”