Residence Life has hired three new hall directors to begin work Tuesday after four hall directors left since the start of this semester.
The new hall director for Centennial Hall, Stephanie Dunton, is from Maine. She has spent time in Americorps leading groups of people of just-past-college age in the program.
Ka-La Harris will work in Blanton-Nason-Brewer Hall. She is a graduate of Illinois College, a small liberal arts college in Jacksonville, Illinois. She served in a leadership role as an undergraduate hall director and has experience in a Greek literary society, which will aid her with the Panhellenic sororities in Blanton-Nason-Brewer Hall, having gone through similar experiences as they have, Director of Residence Life Jamie Van Boxel said.
The third new hall director, David Boughton, will work in West Campus Suites. David graduated from Georgia College & State University, and he was the vice president of his hall council as well as the vice president of the Resident Student Association, which is similar to Truman State University’s Residence Hall Association.
The search for the hall directors began in August by posting a callout both nationally and locally. That posting was then shared by recruitment websites for people who were searching for hall director positions. The people who were interested in the position were screened by small search committees and then had an on-campus interview. The on-campus interviews have been happening every two weeks for the past six weeks. Van Boxel said the on-campus interview process is about trying to see if the candidate has the right skills to be a successful hall director at Truman, as well as selling the Truman experience to candidates that have the opportunity to be hall directors at other institutions across the country.
“A candidate recently told me that when he was offered a tour by one of our community coordinators, who is a student, he was most impressed by the amount of people who waved or said hello and knew the student tour guide,” Van Boxel said. “That candidate spoke [of] wanting to be at a campus where lots of students know each other.”
The fourth hall director position has not yet been filled, but Van Boxel is currently looking into prospective candidates.
“We had a candidate on campus recently,” Van Boxel said. “I’m hoping to fill that position by the middle of October.”