The Department of Residential Life is conducting a nationwide search to fill its associate director position.Former ResLife Associate Director Sam Territo left the position Sept. 15 but is still employed at the University as the assistant director of Facility Services.  Steve Waller, ResLife director, said the department has already begun the search for a candidate.Waller said the department put together a search committee headed by Lori Peterson, assistant director of ResLife. The search began in mid-to-late-August before Territo officially vacated the position.The ResLife position was advertised nationally, and the ad closed Sept. 19. The search committee has a short list of candidates and hopes to schedule interviews by the end of October, Waller said.Waller appointed Karen Rockett, assistant director at ResLife, as the interim associate director until the committee make a decision. Rockett is an applicant for the position and feels her experience within the department adds to her qualifications for the job.”It helps because I know the work tools that we use,” Rockett said. “Sam [Territo] was very encouraging. His philosophy is that everyone should strive to move up.”Territo left ResLife to pursue a promotional opportunity, he said. Territo previously worked at Facility Services as the assistant director but took the position to work at ResLife Oct. 1, 2007.Territo said Facility Services originally approached him to re-take his previous position of assistant director. But Territo said he wouldn’t want to switch departments unless he was given a promotion.”Six months later, a gentleman left Facility Services, and they asked me to return,” Territo said. “I wasn’t going to take a demotion, so they re-evaluated the position and upgraded it [to assistant director].”Territo said he was selected to work at ResLife through a search committee and is confident the department will find a suitable replacement.”What I really liked about the ResLife process was that it wasn’t sitting down for an hour,” Territo said.  “You spent an entire day with them, you talked to the custodial staff, the RA’s, the maintenance staff. I felt Residential Life had a great opportunity to see what Sam Territo was all about, and Sam Territo had a great opportunity to see what Residential Life was about.”
 
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Contact Ben Bourgeois at [email protected]