Iona hired three undergraduate students at the college as interim assistants for Iona’s Residence Hall Directors, according to an email sent to the Residential Life staff on Jan. 18.

The Office of Residential Life hired seniors Samantha Ortiz, Justin Pellegrino and Sarah Newman to fill these positions, according to the email. Ortiz will act as an assistant to the RHD for the Apartments at Eastchester, East Hall and Rice Hall, and will report to Alanna Perez, the current RHD in charge of North Avenue Residence Hall and student employment. Newman will serve as an assistant to the RHD for Conese and Hales Halls, and will report to Tara Roach, the RHD for Loftus Hall. Under his role, Pellegrino will specifically work with front desk workers and Housing Operations, reporting to both Perez and Coordinator for Housing Operations Alister Englehart.

“We have created these interim roles to ensure adequate support for the student staff, students, and the two RHDs as Residential Life takes seriously its commitment to student development and providing top notch customer service and programming,” Michele Sampson-Nelson, assistant vice provost for student services, said in an email interview.

Ortiz and Newman served as residential assistants and Pellegrino worked as a campus minister before they were hired for their new interim roles. Now they will “maintain modified versions of their current student leader roles and take on additional department responsibilities,” according to the email. Some of these responsibilities include planning and leading staff and department programming, serving as a liaison to the professional staff and helping lead closing procedures as well as health and safety inspections in their respective buildings.

“I am very excited to begin this new position in Residential Life,” Newman said. “This position seems like a great opportunity to help out Residential Life and develop professional skills while gaining experience in higher education.”

At the end of the 2018 fall semester, the Office of Residential Life was faced with about 50 percent vacancies in its professional staff positions, according to Vice Provost of Student Life Denise Hopkins. Two of these vacant positions are the RHD responsible for Conese and Hales Halls and the RHD responsible for the Apartments at Eastchester, Rice Hall and East Hall. The Assistant Director of Residential Life position is now empty as well.

This is the first time that assistant RHD-type roles have been implemented at Iona, according to the email. While the Office of Residential Life faced a similar amount of vacancies about three years ago, no contingency plans were put into place that would help the Residential Life staff if the situation were to happen again.

Sampson-Nelson believes that the Office of Residential Life’s hard work and dedication regarding this issue was helpful in finding a temporary solution for the amount of vacant positions.

“Fortunately, Iona has exceptionally dedicated staff who have a strong commitment to our students,” Sampson-Nelson said. “The Residential Life staff…worked extraordinarily hard to ensure our student needs were met during the period in which there was a staffing shortage. However, this is not ideal for maximizing a positive student experience and does not allow us to move forward on our strategic initiatives as we would like. It’s also, of course, not a sustainable model.”

In addition to hiring interim assistants to the RHDs, the Office of Residential Life is also currently in the hiring process for a new assistant director, with hopes that the position will be filled in a little more than a month, according to the email. Residential Life also hired Angel Pierre as an interim on-call professional who will serve in the RHD rotation. Pierre, an Iona alumna who currently works as the assistant director of alumni and special events for the Advancement and External Affairs department at Iona, will serve in this role for one month.

“We expect that the interim measures will provide some additional opportunities for professional development to the exceptional undergraduate students being hired, will provide added support to the professional staff as they focus on higher level initiatives, and will ensure Residential Life presence and support in the identified residential halls,” Sampson-Nelson said.