After being vacant for nearly a year, the position of director in the Office of Student Conduct and Conflict Resolution (OSCCR) will be filled Oct. 24.
Valerie Randall-Lee, who has served as the associate dean of students at Emerson College for the past eight years, will move to Northeastern to assume the position vacated by former Director Bill Fischer last November.
“We’re excited to have someone like her join us,” said Ed Klotzbier, vice president for student affairs.
Two top OSCCR administrators have left in the past year, including Interim Director Wendy Olson, who left in June. Since then, the staff has been cut in half, leaving Assistant Directors Tanner Chesney and Slandah Dieujuste running the office themselves.
Randall-Lee, who has held positions in student conduct and residential life at Simmons College and the University of New Hampshire, will bring to Northeastern an understanding of Boston colleges and the relationships that need to be formed within the community, Klotzbier said.
“She understands our local college scene,” he said. “She comes with that expertise.”
Klotzbier said he has interviewed nearly 15 people during the year as the position has remained unfilled. While many candidates had some of the qualities he was looking for, he said, Randall-Lee was the one with “the whole package.”
Randall-Lee said she is ready to hit the ground running when she begins on Oct. 24.
“There’s a part of me that wants to sit and hear what some of the concerns are that people have,” she said.
Other items Randall-Lee said she wants to address are issues that have arisen with the Code of Student Conduct. She and Klotzbier both said they want to ensure the code of conduct is clear and makes sense to all students and parents.
“I want to work a lot with helping people to understand the code of conduct, helping students to understand it more, parents to understand it more,” Randall-Lee said.
Although Randall-Lee will provide OSCCR with new leadership, one more position still needs to be filled to complete the office. That position was intentionally left unfilled, Klotzbier said, so Randall-Lee could have a hand in choosing who will fill the position of assistant director in the office.
“The poor staff that’s in there has been working very short-staffed for awhile,” Randall-Lee said. “It’s hard to stay on top and work to the expectations of the office like that. We really need to get another person in there and that needs to be a very high priority.”
Although her arrival will change the office, Randall-Lee said she is confident the transition will go smoothly.
“With any transition there’s always questions we’ll have of each other,” she said. “But they’re all great people, I see no reason why we shouldn’t be able to transition pretty smoothly.”
