Due to the recent creation of new student health-related positions in the Dean of the College division, the College is currently operating with an unusually high number of job openings, according to Gavin Henning, director of administration in the Dean of the College division. Various administrators have also been "vulnerable" to recruitment by other organizations due to feelings of general unease surrounding last year's $100-million budget cuts and administrative restructuring, acting Director of the Office of Pluralism and Leadership Pam Misener said.
The Dean of the College division currently lists 10 open positions, five of which were newly created in January as part of a series of student health-related initiatives, according to Henning, who is overseeing the ongoing search processes in the division.
The January initiatives focus on "sexual assault prevention and response, education and counseling for students who engage in high-risk behavior involving alcohol, changes to Social Event Management Procedures and sanctions for organizations that violate College policies, and support for alcohol-free social spaces," according to the Dean of the College website.
Henning said he hopes to have the positions filled by the beginning of the new fiscal year on July 1.
The Office of the President also created a new position for a special assistant for student health who will report directly to College President Jim Yong Kim and will work closely with the Dean of the College's Office to "coordinate our efforts working on binge drinking," Chief of Staff David Spalding said.
Spalding said the Dean of the College search committee, which is selecting Spears' replacement, is "pleased with the progress" of the search and many candidates have shown "strong interest" in the position. Spears' replacement will be announced at the end of May, according to Spalding. Spears will leave her position on June 30.
At the administration's senior level, College officials are actively searching for a vice president for human resources, Spalding said. Lynn Baker is currently serving as the acting vice president and chief human relations officers, according to a breakdown of the senior level administrative positions provided by the College.
Emily Holt-Foerst, who previously worked in the First Year Office and has covered deans' responsibilities in the past, assumed Larimore's duties following Larimore's departure in March. The transition is going "very smoothly," Holt-Foerst said.
"It's a little rehearsed considering I covered for [Assistant Dean of Undergraduate students John Pfister] when he was away and when Dean Larimore took time off in the fall," she said.
Holt-Foerst will step down from the acting position in June, and the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students is actively searching to find a permanent replacement, acting Dean of Undergraduate Students Deborah Tyson said in an email to The Dartmouth.
Pfister, who is also a psychology professor, temporarily vacated his responsibilities as a dean due to an increase in work, Tyson said. Kari Jo Grant, health education coordinator in the Health Resources Office at Dick's House is working in his role in the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students while he teaches classes, according to Tyson.
All institutions have a certain degree of employee turnover, but last year's "budget crisis" created an environment in which administrators were more likely to leave, Misener said.
"We're all vulnerable to being poached away, and I say that because that's exactly what's happened," Misener said. "We lost any number of really good colleagues to being recruited away."
The responsibilities of open positions are usually dispersed among administrators until someone is hired to permanently fill the position, Misener said.
Misener, who is the advisor to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students and became the acting director of OPAL in the fall, has adapted to her increased workload by hiring two student interns and relying on volunteers who "step up" when needed, she said.
A string of announced resignations in the winter including acting Dean of the College Sylvia Spears, Assistant Dean of Undergraduate Students Colleen Larimore and acting director of the Center for Women and Gender and Assistant Dean of Student Life and advisor to black students Samantha Ivery provoked questions about the College's ability to retain minority faculty members.
Although recruiting and retaining a diverse faculty has remained a priority, the administration has been in a "stall" for the last several years due to budget issues, Misener said.
Budget restrictions did not allow administrators to travel to conferences and "actively recruit in a whole host of ways that are about making sure that [we are] creating a very diverse pipeline," Misener said.
Misener said her office initially chose to wait to hire permanent replacements for the director of the Center for Women and Gender and the advisor to black students in the midst of budget strategizing and structural reorganization, with Ivery filling those positions in the interim.
Misener said OPAL will not wait to hire new staff members until after restructuring is over.
