Following Jeff Schneider’s departure as director of safety and security, the college hired Sean Kennedy to serve as interim. Kennedy, who works with Dolores Stafford & Associates consulting firm, officially began on Monday, Nov. 9.

One of the services provided by the Dolores Stafford & Associates consulting firm is that public and private colleges and universities can request an interim director of safety and security.

According to the website, “the interim Chief/Director can assist the institution by providing continuity of leadership until a permanent leader has been hired by the institution.”

Kennedy’s job also includes evaluating campus policies and procedures to make sure it is the “best practices,” as Kennedy called them. He said this would include looking at what other colleges do best and seeing how those policies can be implemented at Allegheny.

“Other [jobs] would include what kind of training officers get,” said Kondrot.

Kondrot said that bringing Kennedy in and doing so, so quickly was important to the college.

“We wanted to bring someone in immediately,” she said.

Kennedy said he has worked with public and private institutions in the past.

“Assessing and guiding—those are the things that I love,” Kennedy said.

Kondrot said most recently he worked at Saint Mary’s College in Maryland. She also said that he has more than 25 years of experience.

On Thursday, Nov. 12, in Schultz Hall, Kondrot said a safety and security staff meeting was held. Although Kennedy has already met most of the staff, the meeting served as his first formal introduction.

“This will be the first time all of the staff will be getting together to meet Sean,” Kondrot said.

Schultz Hall Resident Adviser Levi Lundell, ’17, was informed of Kennedy’s arrival by the residence life staff.

Although Lundell has not yet met Kennedy, he said he is hoping to stop in to the safety and security building informally to introduce himself.

“We decided last year that it was important for [residence] life to know security,” Lundell said.

He said he is glad the college has made the decision to bring in Kennedy.

“The idea that they did it in the first place is a good thing,” he said. “I’m very hopeful about this.”