| Deans shuffle offices in Residence Life
By Will Refvem
News Editor
Calvin administrators have not shuffled like this since President Gaylen Byker memorably graced the Airband stage with his antics last spring.
Jane Hendriksma, formerly the dean of residence life, is now Dean of Students for Judicial Affairs, a new position created specifically to deal with discipline issues among both on-campus and off-campus students. John Witte, formerly associate dean of residence life, will become the new Dean of Residence Life.
Hendriksma takes on a position that will see her continuing many of her current duties. Witte praised her, saying her hard work has benefited Residence Life.
“She grew the program as Dean of Residence Life,” he said. “She saw needs and ways to do things better.”
Shirley Hoogstra, vice president for student life, said Hendriksma “was a great intervener as Dean of Residence Life.”
The new judicial affairs office will allow her to pursue issues of student conduct more deeply, not merely as a disciplinarian but also as a counselor involved in crisis intervention. These are some of the things Hendriksma has already been heavily involved in.
One inefficiency that will be streamlined with the new office is students will no longer be divided up into on-campus and off-campus groups. When Hendriksma was Dean of Residence Life, she would help on-campus students with crisis intervention, while Dean of Student Development Bob Crow would handle off-campus students. Hoogstra said this made it difficult for someone to check up on a student. Under the new system, all students will be handled by Hendriksma.
“We thought that it would be the best service to our students to have one dean who is taking this whole thing under her wing,” said Hoogstra. “That’s why she’s the dean of students for Judicial Affairs.”
Witte plans to continue operating the Residence Life department without much change.
“We want to continue to be receptive to student and Student Senate input into Residence Life,” he said. “[Senate] has always been a good instigator of ideas as a representative body of the students.”
He went on to say that he will continue to make the dorms an environment where students looking for Christian community will feel supported.
“If I have a vision, just a small vision, for some things I would like to refine for next year, that would be one of them,” he said.
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