With next year's residential life plan almost complete, Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta is addressing the organization of his own office.
Moneta said that through December, he will continue to examine ways to make the Division of Student Affairs more efficient--those moves will likely include a major shake-up in the Office of Student Development, which is now responsible for most residential life, judicial affairs and greek life.
"Consistent with everything I've said before, [the philosophy behind these changes] is seamlessness, ease of navigation, sort of looking at Student Affairs, look at what people do, how they relate to student needs and bring closer together those elements where [there can be] more efficient services," said Moneta, who noted that he receives direct reports from 17 officials within the division.
One probable change is a consolidation of residential life services. All housing and residential life aspects of Student Affairs will likely be united along with housing management in one central administrative location. Housing management, which is responsible for maintenance and housing support, was transferred from the Division of Auxiliary Services to Student Affairs prior to Moneta's arrival.
Moneta will announce a full list of changes sometime in December.
Sue Coon, dean of university life, said she had spoken to Moneta about changes in her department, but did not want to specifically comment on them.
Kacie Wallace, associate dean for judicial affairs, said her division is also considering changes.
"We are thinking through changes at this moment.... Any changes would likely be publicized during the summer, so we're actually thinking about some modifications to the process right now that we could work through this spring," Wallace said.
Throughout its history, Student Affairs has been a fluid organization.
Prior to the 1970 merger of the Woman's College with the Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, there were a dean of women and a dean of men; the two officials served "extra-academic" student needs.
Student Affairs consisted of the Union, student activities and the judicial process. After the merger, the men's and women's deans' offices joined into the Office of the Dean of Students, which then merged in 1974 with the Division of Student Affairs.
The last major reorganization took place in 1993, two years after Janet Dickerson was appointed to head the division. She organized it into six departments and the Office of the Vice President, and transferred budget authority to the provost before leaving for Princeton University in 2000.
"I would argue that there's a value to refreshing an organizational structure," Moneta said.
"I don't believe in generating turmoil for the sake of turmoil. The school changes, we've got a more diverse student body than we've had in years, and the organization has to change to fill those needs," he said.
One constant in Student Affairs has been Sue Wasiolek, assistant vice president of the division.
In 1979, when Wasiolek first came to Duke, Student Affairs reorganized itself into residential life and student life components.
Wasiolek said that this year, the office will likely again be arranged similarly. Wasiolek also serves as interim dean for student development.
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