News
Issue News Back Next

News

Residential Life hires Assistant Director

Search ends after seven months

by Sara Foss

Dennis Rupert has been hired as Oberlin's new assistant director of Residential Life. He will be in charge of facilities management.

Rupert, who hails from Bowling Green University, will start Monday. This will allow him to see how Oberlin closes down dormitories and runs the campus during commencement week. "That's why we had to have him here. The end of the year is the pressure point for the department," Deb McNish, director of Residential Life and search committee chair, said.

"I think Dennis is going to be a great asset to the community," said Charlene Cole-Newkirk, dean of Student Life and Services.

Rupert and Terri Bump, special assistant in Student Life, were the final two candidates. Both were supported unanimously by the committee. Rupert's recommendation was supported by two-thirds of the committee. With students and Residential Life, Rupert was the overwhelming top choice, McNish said. "He jived with students," she said. "He was a natural. That's probably the most important thing in facilities management, because your contacts with students are fast and furious."

Senior Jonathon Rochkind, the committee's Oberlin Student Cooperative Association (OSCA) representative, said that everyone in OSCA who met with Rupert liked him. "It seemed like he really had experience and really knew what he was doing," Rochkind said.

"He's extremely bright," Cole-Newkirk said. "He has broad experience in facilities maintenance."

The search process took seven months. It began in October, when the job description was changed to focus more on facilities management. McNish said that the assistant director's workload was distributed between her, Assistant Director of Residential Life Yeworkwha Belachew and Associate Dean of Student Life Michele Gross.

With Rupert, McNish said she hopes the dorms will be a lot cleaner and better maintained. "Those halls look like grunge city," she said. "We hope to fix that next year."


Related Stories:

Res Life search nears end
- April 18, 1997

Assist. director search near end
- September 6, 1996


Oberlin

Copyright © 1997, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 125, Number 22, April 25, 1997

Contact Review webmaster with suggestions or comments at ocreview@www.oberlin.edu.
Contact Review editorial staff at oreview@oberlin.edu.