Assistant hall directors were hired two years ago to help coordinate and supervise the Academic Resource Coordinators. Now that the coordinator position has been eliminated, there is a question of what will happen to the assistant hall director position.

Sarah Holmes, residence life coordinator, said the assistant hall directors came on board to work primarily with the academic resource coordinators, promoting academics in the residence halls.

“Community development within the residence halls is the primary goal,” Holmes said. “Each assistant hall director has their own responsibilities based on the needs of each hall.”

Brad Menard, assistant hall director of Eaton Hall, said he mostly does administrative work while specifically supervising and working with the academic coordinators.

“I supervise the hall desk and hold formal meetings with the ARCs,” Menard said. “I also help with staff development and retreats.”

Menard said in a typical day he handles access card and key issues in addition to attending various meetings.

“This position is very much about getting experience,” Menard said. “Every assistant hall director is a grad student, and eventually most of us want to get a job somewhere in the student affairs field.”

Sarah Reinig, academic resource coordinator in Maple Hall, said assistant hall directors sometimes provide guidance and give coordinators suggestions on how to improve.

“More so, I tend to be pretty independent,” Reinig said. “In other cases [the assistant hall director] provides me with advice and encouragement.”

Reinig said once the coordinator position is eliminated, the purpose of the assistant hall directors will be determined by the status of the Fresh Start program.

“If they keep the Fresh Start program, they will probably have more of an influence on that,” she said. “If they cut it, I’m not sure what they would do. They’d have no purpose.”

Reinig said if they kept the program while eliminating the assistant hall director position, there would be too much work for the community advisers to take on themselves.

Drew Larson, president of the Inter-Residence Hall Association, said a group consisting of student government and staff and administrators was set up to evaluate the Fresh Start program before the coordinator position was eliminated.

“We are going to evaluate the components of the Fresh Start program,” Larson said. “Our goal is to craft two to three different proposals on how to improve its effectiveness.”

Larson said one way the group plans on getting direct feedback from the students is through surveys placed in the dining centers where fresh start students eat.

“We want to get feedback from the students, themselves,” Larson said. “We want to make sure they buy into this and want to participate in this type of community.”

Larson said it is still too far ahead to determine the outcome of the Fresh Start program and the assistant hall directors.

“Hall directors are overworked as it is,” he said. “We need to look at what the assistant hall directors can do to provide value and service to the students.”