Steve Anderson, area coordinator for Barker and Kresge Halls, will be leaving Simpson in mid-February for Elon University in North Carolina.

Anderson will become assistant director for housing at Elon. His new position is similar to that which he currently holds, though on a somewhat larger scale.

“This is a fairly routine kind of thing,” said Jim Thorius, vice president for student development.

Thorius explained that Anderson has been at Simpson for 2 1/2 years and that it is common for someone to take the opportunity to make a big career move.

Anderson will be leaving his duties to Assistant Director of Residence Life Laurie Dienberg-Hoppe for Barker and Area Coordinator Chrysalis Buller for Kresge as well as to the resident assistants in each hall.

“My hope is that we’ve talked enough about planning the spring semester and I think they are very capable of taking over,” Anderson said.

Some of Anderson’s duties as area coordinator included working with Barker and Kresge staffs, acclimating new students to campus, working with administration on room changes and working with First-Year Council. He plans residence hall activities and has done work with international students, implementing the International Student Organization

“We do stuff with summer and fall orientation,” Anderson said. “We’re on duty for the campus one week a month. We participate in room selection and any other duties assigned to us.”

Anderson knows his departure leaves many duties for others to fulfill but he is not concerned and neither is Barker Hall’s second floor resident assistant, junior Nick Claussen.

“As a group,” Claussen said, “we’ve all been asked to take on more responsibilities.”

Claussen said the resident assistants in Barker are restructuring their jobs so that Dienberg-Hoppe can take charge of Barker and serve as a source of advice and the resident assistants can take on day-to-day operations.

“I think we’re going to have to step up and deal with more issues. Steve took care of certain issues but now it’s up to us to make sure Barker is still running smoothly,” Claussen said.

“Having Steve as a leader was a good opportunity. We learned a lot and we will be able to manage Barker for the rest of the year.

“We (Barker resident assistants) are kind of excited to get our feet wet and have more responsibility,” Claussen said.

Thorius said that Student Development is working hard to make sure all of Anderson’s duties are being covered and they will be advertising for the position but do not foresee finding a replacement until next fall.