Jim Basinger, former director of Public Safety, is retiring from service after five years with the college. Mark Weindorf is set to replace him, effective Monday, Jan. 27.
“Big shoes to fill,” Dean of Student Success Ian Binnington said of Basinger. “Just an amazing human being — compassionate, smart, knows when to follow the rules and when to provide a little bit of grace. Has been such an amazing support to a lot of students who are going through legal difficulties or other sorts of things. He’s not a lawyer, but he’s taken his own time to walk students through procedures, he was a presence at sporting events and all around campus.”
Basinger was hired in 2019 after retiring as a major from his career in the Pennsylvania State Police. He started at the college just before the pandemic and was responsible for many of the structural changes to the Department of Public Safety in the years since.
“Over the last two years, I don’t know that a single day has gone past that I haven’t spoken to Jim about something,” Binnington said.
Administration was given about two months’ notice of Basinger’s retirement, and the process for finding a replacement began in the fall, according to Binnington.
“Given that we had got two months’ notice, I had hoped that we would be able to have a candidate in place by the time he retired,” Binnginton said.
As there is about a two-week gap in between Basinger’s retirement and Weindorf’s start withthe department, Public Safety Detective Kurt Sitler assumed the role as interim director.
Sitler has been with Allegheny College since February 2022 and had worked closely with Basinger even before coming to campus as they had both served in the state police.
When Basinger graduated from the academy and came to Meadville, Sitler was his first coach; and when Sitler retired from the state police, Basinger recruited him to work at Allegheny.
“I trained him, and then he was my boss. Twice,” Sitler mused.
In addition to Basinger’s retirement, Public Safety saw changes to staff and structure after two other staff members retired at the same time as Basinger: Assistant Director of Public Safety William Merchbaker, after nine years with the college, and Office Manager Marilyn Moore after 38 years of service.
Because there were previously two assistant directors of public safety, the responsibilities of Merchbaker were absorbed by Assistant Director Joe Johnston.
“Once the new director comes on board, he and I will review staffing and see if we need a second assistant director,” Binnington said.
Similarly, Moore’s position of office manager was renamed the communications and operations manager after merging the responsibilities of the office manager position with that of the dispatch office. Dispatcher Kelly Thakur was promoted to the new position.
Overall, transitions within the office have gone “fairly smooth,” according to Sitler, with Public Safety currently fully staffed and the director position the only job that had to be filled from outside the college.
Both Sitler and Binnington were a part of the hiring committee tasked with the responsibilities of the vetting process of candidates for the director position, along with a number of faculty, administration and students.
The committee reviewed the applications, held Zoom interviews with three candidates and then brought two candidates to campus.
Candidates met with students, professors, Residence Life, President Ron Cole, ’87, the Meadville City police chief and the director of the 911 call center, as well as everyone in the Public Safety office, said Sitler.
Of the two candidates brought to campus, Weindorf was hired.
Weindorf worked for 31 years in the state police and retired in April 2024 at the rank of lieutenant. In the last year, he has worked as a detective for the District Attorney’s office in Erie.
Weindorf initially heard about the position at Allegheny through previous director Basinger as the two had worked together for a number of years in the state police in the 1990s.
While he may not have experience working on a college campus, his experience as a lieutenant with responsibilities that spanned over several counties has helped him to prepare for the role, Weindorf said. He is also familiar with the area as a lifelong Erie resident, as well as the campus. He previously volunteered multiple times for the state police Camp Cadet summer program that takes place at Allegheny.
As for the specifics of the position, Weindorf said that both Basinger and Binnington had done a good job of preparing him for what to expect.
Weindorf felt that the committee and administration had a “very intense hiring process” that included two intense days of interviewing. Given the importance of the position, Weindorf said that he appreciated the lengths the college was able to go in order to conduct an in-depth hiring process and that he himself was impressed with the colleges’ thoroughness.
“They were very intentional about their search,” said Vice President of Allegheny Student Government Joseph Leszczynksi, ’25. “They wanted someone who could do as good a job as the departing director did.”
Leszczynski was asked to be a part of the hiring committee because of his role in ASG, though it was not his first experience. He had previously been a part of faculty searches for Community and Justice Studies, as well as the search for the new director of Spiritual, Religious and Personal Wellbeing that took place last semester.
Leszczynski’s involvement mostly took place during the preliminary interviews.
“They wanted somebody who could create cohesion,” Leszczynski said. “There were a lot of questions asked of these individuals and trying to discern how they would behave in the role, which is difficult to do from just asking questions, but doing what they could to get a really good sense of who the people were and whether or not they would fit into the campus community and into our Public Safety Department.”
For the role of director, the committee looked to hire someone with both supervisory and law enforcement experience, and Weindorf was selected as the best fit for the job.
“I’m hopeful that he will do the job well, and I think that the best way he can do that is in a way kind of being noticeable,” Leszczynski said. “If we’re not even questioning whether or not there’s an issue, then there’s no issue, because he’s doing his job well. So, I’m optimistic.”
Basinger, after a vacation to the Caribbean, will be returning to campus to help with Weindorf’s transition to the position. “We’re not going to throw him [Weindorf] into the fire,” Sitler said.
Given Basinger’s career of roughly 30 years in law enforcement, Binnington said he understood the decision to retire.
“He deserves a break,” Binnington said. “I wish him the best, and I’m really looking forward to working with Mark.”