Assistant Dean for Student Leadership and Engagement Eric Stolar is no longer at Allegheny College, with Feb. 9 having been his final day. Stolar spent just over four years at the college, starting with two years in the admissions office before spending two years in Student Life. Many of his responsibilities — including overseeing Fraternity and Sorority Life and the Grounds for Change coffeeshop — have been transferred to Associate Dean of Students for Community Standards and Wellness Gretchen Beck.
Stolar’s departure was quiet, only publicly acknowledged during a cabinet report at the Allegheny Student Government’s Feb. 6 General Assembly.
In an interview last week, Dean for Student Life Trae Yeckley declined to comment on the specifics of Stolar’s exit.
“We don’t comment on why employees leave the college, but we are, you know, we wish him the best,” Yeckley said.
Stolar did not respond to a request for comment sent via Facebook, and his institutional email redirects to Beck.
GFC leadership did not respond to a request for an interview.
Student leaders who worked with Stolar were notified in advance, though that did not make his resignation any less unanticipated.
“I don’t want to say I was necessarily shocked or surprised, but it was definitely something a little bit unexpected,” said Interfraternity Council President Alexander Matlak, ’25. “I never heard talks or anything of him, like, leaving and then I heard that he had his two weeks notice in and then that he would be gone.”
Part of the surprise — at least for Panhellenic Council President Kat Lynch, ’25 — was the timing. Many FSL organizations, including IFC and Panhel, elect new leadership at the start of the calendar year.
“We found out like the week after primary recruitment ended, and it was my first week as Panhel president,” Lynch said. “We had transitioned on Sunday and I got an email, I think either Monday or Wednesday saying his last day was a week from the coming Friday.”
Though the timing of Stolar’s resignation may have been out of the blue to some student leaders, the reason was not, at least for Lynch.
I know that he had a lot on his plate here,” she said. “I also know the trend in our offices of quick turnover.”
Stolar is the second departure from the third floor of the campus center in as many semesters; former Director of the IDEAS Center Lisa Nicole Smith left with little fanfare in early September. In addition, Vice President for Enrollment Management Ellen Johnson left last month.
As assistant dean, Stolar’s portfolio included advising FSL and GFC, as well as running student leadership programming and leadership awards.
In practice, this meant part of his job was to act as a liaison between FSL groups and other parts of the college, from Public Safety and Physical Plant, to upper administration and other fraternities or sororities. Lynch said that Stolar was at every night of primary recruitment for sororities last month, and that he was a resource for sorority presidents and vice presidents.
“I know I went to him many times as the recruitment chair, when I was just confused with the school’s rules, stuff like that,” said IFC Vice President Andrew Myers, ’25. “Even as the risk manager for Delt (Delta Tau Delta), I went to him a couple times just with like, ‘How can we work better with the school?’”
Beck will fill Stolar’s position in an interim capacity as the college reviews the assistant deanship to see if it is still effective.
“Anytime we have a person vacate a position, we always evaluate that position to see if it’s filling the needs — and is there any way that we can, you know, make it fit the needs of the campus better?” Yeckley said.
After the position and job description are evaluated, the job will be posted — likely by spring break — to be filled as soon as possible.
“It’s something that’s a really high priority to us, especially because fraternity and sorority life make up a good percentage of students on campus, GFC is such a beloved staple on campus,” Yeckley said. “We want students to know that they are a priority, they continue to be a priority and we want to make sure that they have the support and that seamless transition.”
That seamless transition seems to be happening, according to FSL leadership.
“She (Beck) has just sort of stepped up and been doing everything that Eric would have been doing,” Matlak said. “I haven’t seen any lack of or drop off of anything — if anything, maybe even a bit of a more increased presence.”
It is the same story for Lynch, who noted Beck’s past years as FSL adviser.
“She has lots of experience with Panhel and IFC, and I’ve definitely seen that,” Lynch said. “We’ve had a great working relationship so far, and I haven’t really noticed major disruptions any more than what would happen with the transition of Panhel presidents.”
As for who comes next, both Matlak and Myers said they are hoping for more of the same. In particular, Matlak said that both Stolar and Beck were good at “active listening” and letting students lead their own organizations.
For his part, Myers pointed out that Stolar was not a member of a fraternity, though Beck was in a sorority. He said he hopes that the next FSL lead is someone that was in a fraternity or sorority at a small Division III liberal arts college like Allegheny.
“Greek life at a state school, or even something like Penn State or Pitt, it’s very different from the Greek life environment that we have here at Allegheny,” Myers said. “Eric and Gretchen, so far, have done just absolutely amazing jobs letting that Greek life really blossom here at Allegheny.”
Beyond coordinating with FSL and GFC, Stolar also spearheaded the deployment of Engage, a platform for clubs and organizations to advertise events and share documents. However, the system has struggled to gain traction; The Campus reported in November that just five clubs had an active presence on the site. This week, there were just four events listed on Engage — including three regular meetings.
Speaking last Thursday, Feb. 15, Yeckley said they had heard that the esports team had pulled the rosters of the Legion of Allegheny Gamers and the Allegheny Role-Playing and Gaming Organization from Engage.
“I did hear from a club yesterday that they were able to use Engage to identify members of different clubs so that they could collaborate together,” Yeckley said. “It’s a great place to store info while we have it.”
Otherwise, Yeckley said, Engage will be “continuously” evaluated to see if it is still meeting students’ needs.
“We’re continuing to look at, ‘Is this the right platform for us?’” they said. “I can’t answer that right now — as for right now, it is, but that doesn’t mean that it is going to continue to be the right platform moving forward.”
Regardless of what happens to Engage or the assistant deanship, both Yeckley and Matlak said that Stolar will be missed.
“He was a really good fit here, he was a really good fit in admissions, and we miss his, his presence, and his laughter, and his hard work, and his two dogs,” Yeckley said, adding that they were still in contact and on good terms with Stolar.
“We all are gonna miss Eric and we all like, miss the sort of energy and person that he was,” Matlak said. “But I think we’re all really excited and just looking forward to the future and looking forward to these next steps.”
