New Student Programs Director Cordy Love has resigned from the position after four years.

Love hit a glass ceiling at NSP, he said.

“I wasn’t going to move up, especially to assistant dean or dean of students,” Love said. “There wasn’t any professional growth for me.”

Love said it’s important for him to know that he’s treated fairly in his role and it just got to a point where it didn’t feel like that way anymore.

“Administration had a different vision for NSP [and] I made the very hard decision to step away from that,” Love said.

Love said he didn’t exactly know what administration’s vision was, but they did want more engagement.

“I was not given direction on where to go,” Love said.

Love said he resigned after his vacation days marking a final day on Oct. 26.

Love earned his bachelor’s and master’s at SIU, served as a graduate student in NSP and four years as coordinator of NSP.

“[As director] it was my dream job,” Love said. “I learned how to be a professional working in that department.”

Love also said leaving this position also means leaving many amazing connections he had made with offices across campus and for that he is deeply saddened.

“Thank you for the time and effort you have put in to helping make my time as director successful and impactful for new students,” Love said in his email to campus colleagues. “I say this with a heavy heart.”

Lori Stettler, vice chancellor of student affairs, said Love brought institutional history and knowledge about NSP.

“[Love] focused in conjunction with management to ensure work with admissions and brought through orientation process for students to become fully enrolled,” Stettler said.

Stettler also said NSP conduct is like most colleges who follow the best practices that are shared through research done by the National Orientation directors association.

“There will be no change to the functioning role of NSP or the scope of the office,” Stettler said. “The human resources department conducts the hiring process.”

Stettler said administration is looking for someone who understands the entire recruitment and retention process and has the ability to develop relationships across campus.

Dean of Students Jennifer Jones Hall and NSP Coordinator Shannon Schroeder are now managing NSP.

Director of recruitment, retention and outreach, Pamela Smoot, said she was extremely disappointed to hear about Love’s resignation.

“He definitely had the personality and demeanor for the position,” Smoot said. “I thought he did an outstanding job with programming, supervising his staff and training his orientation leaders.”

NSP is vital to the university’s recruitment and retention, Smoot said.

“It’s a strong program that provides a one-stop shop where incoming freshmen and transfer students can register for class take care of financial matters and take campus tours,” Smoot said.  

Nakkiah Stampfli, a senior studying philosophy and communication studies, is a team lead that develops the interview and training materials for the 2019 orientation leader staff.

Stampfli said NSP former assistant director Gena Albert and former office manager Tammy Wieseman didn’t necessarily get promotions in the sense that they didn’t move up in the SIU structure.

“They were offered different positions in a different campus department and those job offers came with pay raises,” Stampfli said.

Stampfli also said she doesn’t blame them at all for taking it.

“I can’t say for certain what the future of NSP is going to look like,” Stampfil said. “But, they haven’t shared with us what that vision looks like.”

Love said he had been NSP director for four years and professionally it’s not uncommon for someone in his realm, after that fifth year mark to look for other opportunities.

“I started looking for other opportunities last July,” Love said. “I had some personal things going on in my own life that I had to step away from and sometimes you want to change the environment too.”

Staff reporter Claire Cowley can be reached at [email protected].

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