By Morgan Miles, Staff Writer

The Office of Residence Life (Res Life) welcomes five new Hall Directors this year, COVID-19 and educational opportunities to a high turnover rate for the position in the past year. Of the six, five are new to the position at Xavier.

Res Life’s mission is to help students of Xavier succeed in communities that are inclusive, accepting and accommodating.

Explaining the office’s purpose, Senior Director of the Office of Residence Life, Lori Lambert provided a brief statement about the goals Res Life aims to achieve.

“We are committed to providing continued learning and leadership opportunities outside of the classroom,” she stated, connecting Jesuit values to the foundation and mission of Res Life. 

As a senior director with 34 years of experience, Lambert admitted that her favorite part of working with Res Life is the staff: the central office, hall directors and RAs.

Underneath the Res Life office umbrella, hall directors are professional staff tasked with watching over their assigned residential area. They are trained to act for educational opportunities and work closely with Student Affairs. 

The turnover rate for hall directors has been higher than average this year.

“Typically, we don’t have this much turnover all at once,” Lambert said, chalking up the numbers to COVID-19 and other opportunities the previous hall directors chose to pursue. Without COVID-19, Lambert estimated that the turnover rate would’ve only been half, if even that. 

She added that the new staff has been able to pick up the procedures and practices put into place throughout 2020 and reestablish them this year.

Despite the pandemic-specific practices and procedures, the expectations for staff were generally the same as any year. 

“COVID certainly has us more focused on safety and health,” Lambert said, referring to the responsibilities of hall directors. 

“We do our best to enforce the guidelines… to keep students healthy,” she added.

Another challenge the Res Life staff faces is vandalism within Xavier’s facilities. Acknowledging the work put into the quality of the communities at Xavier, Lambert feels disappointed and disheartened that vandalism is a problem the staff has to encounter. 

“We need the help of the students in the buildings,” Lambert urged. 

Encouraging the “see something, say something” policy, Res Life staff aims to reduce vandalism and the stress it can create.