Residential Services has begun the search for a new director of residential life and graduate housing residential director, two positions that recently became available.

Mary Goldenberg, the outgoing director of residential life, is being promoted to Assistant Dean of Students over the summer pending finding her replacement.

The University is also looking for a new graduate housing residence director. Kristina Richards, who formerly  held the position, died in March. 

Paul Riel, executive director of Residential Services, said the director of residential life is essentially “responsible for the on-campus experience.” Riel, who is tasked with finding a replacement, said the position has numerous responsibilities and oversees the 107 student community assistants and the area-specific residential directors.

Residential Services placed the job offer online about a week ago and is currently accepting applications. An 11-member committee of individuals from various NU organizations will convene Friday to begin sorting through resumes. Riel said the committee hopes to conduct on-campus interviews by May 19 in an effort to fill the position by July 1.

“What we’re looking for is a passion for residential students, understanding of the residential environment and interest in expertise and background in staff development,” Riel said. “Certainly someone who has a love of working with students and an appreciation for what an on-campus living experience can do.”

Cassie Eskridge, senior assistant director for residential services, is in charge of finding the new graduate housing residence director, who will supervise the roughly 800 graduate students living in University housing.

Eskridge said the main requirement for the new employee will be experience. She said whoever is chosen will have worked on other college campuses with CAs and students. The jobs offered at NU are in very high demand, which allows the process to be extremely selective, even for an entry-level position, she said.

“People want to live in Chicago and the Chicago area,” she said. “It’s very easy to get (to Chicago) and we have the best of both worlds. People want to be happy both personally and professionally.”

Eskridge said they are much further along in their process than that of finding the director of residential services. The top five applicants had on-campus interviews during the past two weeks, and the final decision has been made pending background and reference checks, although the starting date of the new employee is not yet finalized.

The search, she said, has not been largely affected by Richards’ death.

“We haven’t been advertising it out of respect for her and her family,” she said.  “Turnover in these kinds of positions is not that unusual because it is an entry-level position.”

Eskridge said, more than anything, she is happy the work residential directors do is getting some attention.

“The job that residential directors do, they impact the students every day,” she said. “A lot of work goes into finding the right person.”

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @davidylee95