For fourth-year Plant Biology and Conservation Ph.D. candidate Kyla Knauf, meeting with Hobart House’s executive board had been a routine for years. But this spring, she tearfully explained to the board that her role as Hobart’s assistant chair had been cut. 

Knauf said her residents called her “an older sister” and are like “a family” to her.

“It was so sweet to know that our relationship exceeds my job title,” she said. 

Knauf, who has served as assistant chair of Hobart, the women’s residential college, all four years that she has been at NU, said she had no reason to believe she would not continue working this fall — so much so that she had already begun planning for the 2026-27 academic year.

According to former assistant chairs, a faculty chair and student leaders in residential colleges, the cuts to assistant chairs announced Spring Quarter follow a pattern of decisions by the University to implement cuts to residential colleges on campus, affecting operations and ultimately the experiences of students living within them.

Knauf said although the decision “came out of nowhere,” it aligned with other cuts to residential college programs she has witnessed in recent years, including last year’s elimination of associate chairs, who contributed to residential college functions.

Across NU’s residential colleges, assistant chairs have various responsibilities, including facilitating programming specific to each college and advising the undergraduate residents’ student executive boards.

Following the cuts, NU’s Residential & Academic Engagement department has introduced a new position: RAE program coordinators. Unlike assistant chairs, who are NU graduate students designated to one residential college, the program coordinators are not required to be NU graduate students and will each be in charge of three to four colleges each.

Residential college faculty, assistant chairs and student leaders have expressed uncertainty and disappointment about the changes and their potential impacts on students.

Stakeholders consider how replacement position will affect student experience

To Knauf, who has helped host lunches with Hobart’s faculty fellows, run fireside chats and lead trips to the Chicago Botanic Garden, the program coordinator position spanning numerous colleges is concerning. She said it feels like an effort to absorb the residential colleges into their respective residential areas, diminishing the experience of each individual college.

“They know that you’re there for their college, their dorm, that is your responsibility,” Knauf said. “It is your choice to work with this college because you want to be part of that community specifically.”

Knauf said the University has been attempting to recruit some of the assistant chairs to a different role for graduate students, called a Graduate Assistant for RAE, which she described as a more “administrative” position. 

“It’s really frustrating because they basically reinvented the wheel and now are offering us positions that are vastly different from what we were doing, and then some of that’s going to entail, I’m sure, working with these new program coordinators on our roles,” Knauf said.

She said she believes program coordinators, in an effort to balance the responsibilities associated with three to four residential colleges at a time, will be unable to establish meaningful connections like hers. 

She added that after working with her residents for four years — and having just said goodbye to the graduating seniors who were once first-years she oversaw — she developed such strong connections with them that they would regularly share meals in her office. 

“There’s a lot less intention with the relationship, and I think that’ll be obvious to students,” Knauf said. “I’m sure (the program coordinators) will be well-intentioned, but they will have to balance three to four other colleges’ needs, and they won’t really know the ins and outs of one as well. It’s a ‘master of none’ situation.”

Hobart Faculty Chair Jeanine Casler, who was present at the executive board meeting when Knauf informed the executive board about the elimination of her position, said she believed the interaction exemplified “the level of affection” students develop for their assistant chairs, who are often easier to approach than their more “parental” faculty chairs.

Casler said because the program coordinators will be split between colleges, she anticipates that some of their responsibilities may fall on faculty chairs. She said it would be a “learning curve” for those in the new positions, adding that they will not be able to give the same amount of energy and create the same bonds as assistant chairs.

“If that person is trying to cover four different (residential) colleges and be responsible for four different (residential) colleges, it’s a very different experience for the students,” Casler said. “They’re not going to get as much of that person’s time and dedication.”

Another general concern expressed by current assistant chairs has been that grouping the residential colleges up may blur the lines between their individual needs and workflows.

Public health master’s student Emma Smith (Weinberg ’26), assistant chair for the Residential College of Cultural and Community Studies, lived at the residential college for four years as an undergraduate. She said she is worried about how the change will affect the residential college experience for future students.

“My concern is that with (residential) colleges not having a dedicated (assistant chair), they might lose some of that independence that makes each college so unique and so interesting,” Smith said.

Rising Weinberg sophomore and CCS President Riyadh Syed said he is concerned about how a new program coordinator — especially one not affiliated with NU — would have to familiarize themselves with the different needs of the residential colleges under their jurisdiction. 

For example, he said Slivka Residential College of Science and Engineering is larger than CCS and thus has a more elaborate executive board structure. Along with different types of events, he said residential colleges each have their own constitutions. 

“They’re also looking outside of Northwestern, so on top of having to learn the different residential colleges and their different vibes, they also have to learn Northwestern itself,” Syed said.

Cuts to assistant chairs compound previous residential college cuts

From associate chair cuts to the most recent assistant chair cuts, those involved in leading residential colleges said there has been a trend of layoffs.

Knauf said she feels like the University is aiming to break residential colleges into an area model, which she says will not provide the same benefits to students.

Beyond slashing positions, the cuts also negatively impact the student experience in residential colleges, according to Casler. She said she feels the move creates a “layer of distance” between faculty chairs and program coordinators, who will be more directly under NU’s influence.

Rising McCormick junior Diego Jiménez, CCS’ 2025-26 president, said he is unsure about the future, describing the situation as “unpredictable” but likely to have a negative impact on the residential college experience. He said the latest move showed him the University lacks a plan.

Jiménez added that he feels the CCS faculty chair has been dealing with increased responsibilities in light of various cuts. 

“Right now, she has a lot on her plate,” he said. “I can see every time she comes in, she’s just overwhelmed by the amount of work that she has to do, and losing the assistant chair, it’s made it that much worse.” 

Residential college leaders reflect on future, call for change

As a graduate student working on her Ph.D., Knauf said working in a residential college like Hobart was a rewarding experience that provided her with a sense of community. Instead of remaining glued to her computer all day writing papers and applying for grants, she said she was able to connect with the NU community.

“A lot of people in general struggle with isolation in graduate school, and Hobart Residential College has given me a community to actually go to every week and help people and feel good that I’m doing something to help others as I’m working on this huge project,” Knauf said.

Casler said she wishes the University had consulted stakeholders in the residential college community, especially faculty chairs, before making this “top-down” decision.

Considering it was announced in Spring Quarter, she said its timing seemed hurried and did not consider that assistant chairs may have been depending on the job for the next year. Casler said while she understands the complex issues facing the University, she feels the students deserved to be a part of the decision, too.

“Even if they turned it over to the students and said, ‘There’s a chance that we might have to get rid of assistant chairs, do you have any suggestions for dealing with this?’ That’s what I would’ve expected from a student-facing part of the University,” Casler said. 

Having emptied the CCS office that once belonged to Smith, Syed said he is already feeling the decision’s effects. He said he hopes the new program coordinator supports expression of his residential college’s values, which Smith emphasized, especially at the beginning of the year.

“Early on, right at the start of Fall Quarter, she immediately promoted the cultural and community aspects of CCS,” Syed said. “And I’m hoping that we can teach the person, whoever fills this new position, the same importance of community and culture.”

Smith, who has lived and been involved with the same residential college for all four of her undergraduate years, said it does not look like how it did when she first arrived at NU. 

She said she feels the University has been “chipping away” at the residential college experience.

“I’ve felt like the residential colleges are becoming more and more like a regular residential hall,” Smith said. “They’re just different: The point of a residential hall is, ‘This is where I live,’ and the point of a residential college is, ‘This is a community.’”

Email: [email protected] 

Related Stories: 

— Few students apply to Residential College Board after new residency requirement

— Students find community as non-residential members of residential colleges

— Residential colleges change housing points system, capping number of returnable students