Three students from Kent State University to live on campus
Stephen Lumetta
News Editor
There will be some new faces on campus next year: three graduate students studying higher education at Kent State University will serve as assistants in the Division of Campus Life in the upcoming year.
Two of the graduate students will be working for the Office of Residence Life and one will be working for Jessica Ettell, coordinator of Student Rights and Responsibilities.
The three will be living on campus in yet-to-be-determined buildings.
“Graduate students studying higher education [and] student affairs bring a wealth of knowledge from their master’s program to be applied to their work and better support the community,” said Director of Residence Life Nathan Fein.
Fein added that he has worked at institutions with graduate student assistants and considers them helpful additions to the staff.
Fein said the graduate assistants will be helping to supervise the Residence Life student staff.
“This will increase the number of staff our student staff can turn to for support. They will also bring new ideas and perspective on the work that is done so that we can do better work for the campus,” said Fein.
The graduate assistants will be doing more than working with the Residence Life student staff. They will be supporting other College of Wooster students.
“We wanted to increase the number of professional staff who students could connect with in our office to seek support,” said Fein.
“By increasing our staff connected to the buildings we are increasing the number of staff students can reach out to [to] get support on topics ranging from facilities concerns to roommate conflicts,” he said.
According to Fein, the master’s program that the graduate students are in is a two-year program. Typically, students will stick with their assistantship for two years, but Fein said that whether the students stay at the College for one year or two is up to the individual students.
Fein said that the decision to bring in graduate assistants will lead to “no overall increase” in the Residence Life budget.
“I have been looking all year at the Residence Life staffing structure. With Dennis LoConti leaving, and decreasing the number of Resident Directors … we shifted around existing budgeted resources to better support our students,” said Fein.