Maggie Hannon |
After 13 years with the University, Residence Life veteran Natalie Shank served her last day on Dec. 15. Alex Hermanny, who previously worked as UP’s associate director for housing, has taken over for Shank as the new associate director for community standards.
Shank accepted a job at Clark College in Vancouver, WA, where she will work as assistant director for student care and community standards.
UP is currently interviewing applicants for Hermanny’s previous job.
“As someone who really loved working with Natalie, it’s a real honor to pick up where she left off,” Hermanny said. “I think she did a lot of really excellent work during her time at UP and I’m excited to have the opportunity to continue that good work and hopefully continue to improve upon it.”
The associate director for community standards is responsible for managing the student conduct program. This includes ensuring that the student handbook, Life on the Bluff, is current, training all hearing officers, meeting with students for hearings and reaching out to students to make sure they understand University policies.
The position, which used to be known as the associate director of student conduct, was modified in 2013 with the arrival of the Director of Residence Life, Chris Haug. Along with Fr. Jerry Olinger and Fr. John Donato, Haug made changes to the department by starting a pastoral conversation element to the disciplinary process.
While some violations to the student conduct policy are too egregious to be handled through a pastoral conversation, some smaller offenses like inter-visitation are now handled through pastoral conversation. Before this, the conduct policy held hearings for smaller offenses.
“We are trying to walk with our students and help correct some behaviors along the way so we don’t have to elevate them to our conduct process” Haug said.
Haug thinks the position allows for students to become better members of the UP community.
“What I love about the position is that it is...there are so many opportunities for that professional to help students succeed,” Haug said.
The associate director for housing is responsible for the student room selection process and updating and selecting resident hall furniture, among other things. Haug hopes to announce the new associate director for housing by Feb. 1.
Alex Hermanny has been with the University since 2011. He previously attended and worked at the University of Notre Dame and has a master’s in teaching as well as a law degree. As Hermanny starts this position, he looks forward to the outreach component of the job.
“I’m really excited about the chance to educate the community about what the community standards that are in Life on the Bluff actually mean, and to help people understand a little bit better the ‘why,’” Hermanny said.
Hermanny said that if students have a better idea about the impact of their actions, they are likely to make better choices.
“There’s some pretty significant consequences that come from being found responsible, like sometimes that does lead to people getting suspended,” Hermanny said. “And I think sometimes there’s a lack of awareness of what that means in college versus, say, high school.”
Haug and Hermanny worked together previously while they were both at University of Notre Dame. Haug is optimistic that Hermanny will excel at his new job.
“He has a wonderful heart,” Haug said. “I’ve known [Hermanny] for some time and really trust him and know that he’ll just do a bang-up job in this role.”
Maggie Hannon is a reporter for The Beacon. She can be reached at hannon15@up.edu.
