Residence Life is currently looking to fill three vacant full-time positions after two staff members abruptly left Allegheny over winter break.

Less than six weeks after beginning his tenure as residence life director on Nov. 24, Seohun “Charlie” Cho was no longer employed with the college, according to a Jan. 5, email to resident advisors. Cho had been hired to fill a position left vacant by the unexpected departure of Associate Dean for Residence Life Staci Wolbert in the fall.

Residence Life Coordinator Mary Boepple, ’25, also resigned over break, after a year that she described as “nothing short of chaos and challenges,” according to a farewell email to several colleagues, in which she expressed her gratitude and appreciation for their hard work.

Boepple is the fifth staff member to depart Residence Life during the 2025-2026 academic year, leaving Residence Life severely understaffed.

“This was an unusual semester, this is not typical,” Dean for the Student Experience Ian Binnington said in a Jan. 16 interview with The Campus. “It’s cost us a lot of time and other energies.”

Because of this year’s unusually high turnover rate, current staff members in the Student Life Office — within which Residence Life is situated — have assumed responsibilities in order to continue running the office.

“Turnover is a significant impact on continuing staff because the job still needs to get done,” Binnington said, pointing to several remaining staff members such as Yeckley, Director of Student Experience Operations & Strategy Tiffany Hrach, ’01, Operations & Conduct Coordinator Isaiah Romain, ’23, Student Engagement Manager Ella Horner, ’24 and Associate Dean of Student Life Gretchen Beck as those who are now helping complete the work. “All of the staff in student life have stepped up to cover these responsibilities, which is what would normally happen.”

Binnington said that Yeckley will continue to take on the responsibilities of director of Residence Life throughout the academic year. Yeckley was not available for comment.

“It is difficult to hire within student life,” Binnington explained, speaking about an issue that is not specific to Allegheny but colleges everywhere. “COVID really took a toll on student life professionals, a lot of whom left the field in the aftermath of that.”

Binnington echoed an idea that Yeckley expressed while speaking to The Campus in October after Wolbert’s departure: the high turnover in higher education typically results from people using smaller institutions as stepping stones in their career, gaining experience before moving on to more highly paid positions.

“Turnover is unfortunately a part of the landscape of higher education these days,” Binnington said.

Binnington described Residence Life as a “fairly high pressure job” because of the nature of the staff needing to be on-call during the night, which he finds takes a toll on a person.

“If you have the opportunity to take a job where you’re not getting called at 2 o’clock in the morning, that’s the thing that a lot of people would do,” Binnington said.

Despite the current vacant positions, Binnington is confident in the remaining Residence Life staff and current RAs to carry out their usual duties.

“Even with the vacancies, the staff have a good handle on what’s going on and the RAs are great and they do a great job, and that does mean that with vacancies in the professional staff ranks, there is still a point person for every single student on their floor,” Binnington said.

The college continues its search for employees as all open positions are posted and currently have applicants, according to Binnington. The director of residence education opening was posted online on Jan. 15, for a salary of $50,000, while the residence life coordinator position was posted one day earlier, at a base rate of $17.10 per hour.

While staff leaving causes challenges, Binnington also views it as an opportunity.

“It’s an opportunity to hire somebody with new ideas, new experiences, new backgrounds,” Binnington said. “So while I hate to see people go, I take the position that every opportunity to hire can be made into a positive.”