Beginning this semester, Residential Life now falls under the charge of Associate Vice Chancellor for Students Rob Wild after more than 20 years in the hands of Dean of Students Justin Carroll.

Associate Vice Chancellor for Students Rob Wild discusses his new role as head of Residential Life. Wild took over for longtime ResLife head Justin Carroll, who has shifted assignments this year.

After Associate Vice Chancellor for Students Jill Carnaghi left Washington University in the summer of 2014, her student service duties fell to Carroll on an interim basis. Vice Chancellor for Students Sharon Stahl asked Carroll to take on the area of Campus Life, which includes the Community Service Office, Student Involvement and Leadership, and the Danforth University Center, on a more permanent basis.

Stahl then decided to rearrange the responsibilities of her department amongst the executive team, switching Residential Life and the Office of Student Conduct to Wild’s control.

“The University is trying to be much more efficient and to use resources to try to address the issue of socioeconomic diversity, among other things, and so we knew that we wouldn’t fill [Carnaghi’s] position, that we would try to rearrange things—still make it exceptionally well supervised so that the quality of student services did not diminish in any way, but that we would then adjust the workload,” Stahl said.

Because Stahl will be retiring at the end of the 2014-15 academic year, she wanted to leave the student services in the best possible condition for her successor.

“We have a new person coming on July 1, and so I wanted things to be in really good working order when they came,” Stahl said. “We have a great group of people overseeing all of student services right now so I didn’t want to make a lot of changes, but I knew that we needed to go ahead and do this so that the workload was a little better distributed.”

Carroll, who spent the fall semester of 2014 commuting between the South 40 and the Danforth Campus, is glad to have the opportunity to work on new projects with more focus.

“I wasn’t overworked or anything like that, but it is nice to be able to eventually have one office and not be going back and forth and get involved with the new departments that I took on,” he said. “It’s bittersweet. I spent more than half of my time at the University involved with Residential Life, but I’m excited for the new opportunity.”

Carroll is happy to see Wild return to the position, especially because he is in large part responsible for bringing Wild in to work for the University. Wild attended Washington University as an undergraduate and was a residential adviser as a student, working closely with Carroll before graduating.

Carroll recalled fondly a conversation he had with Wild when the latter was finishing up his graduate work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and asked Carroll to be a job reference.

“I said, ‘Where’s the job?’ and it was in California or something and I was like, ‘Nah, I don’t think I’ll do that one.’ And he goes, ‘What do you mean you’re not going to do it?’ and I say, ‘Well, because we have a job at Washington University and I think it’d be perfect for you, you should consider applying,’” Carroll said. “And I strongly encouraged him to consider coming here. I thought he’d be a great asset for students.”

While Carroll was not responsible for the decision, he is very happy to see Wild in his former position.

“It seems natural since he has a long history, so he’ll provide a lot of continuity,” Carroll said. “There’s been a lot of changes in ResLife, but the bottom line is that the backbone of what we do and the community that we try to foster, I think, has been the same forever. I always viewed my role as ‘don’t mess that up.’ Institute new changes and new facilities and help create the faculty program and new initiatives, but always do it in a way that doesn’t interfere with the sense of community that has been at the University long before me. I think he understands that and shares an understanding of the importance of it.”

Wild worked as a residential college director for several years before moving to work in the chancellor’s office. He was made an associate vice chancellor for students when Stahl was made vice chancellor and had been primarily responsible for the First Year Center.

“It’s a real honor for me to get to go back…to work with a team that is providing a great residential experience for our students,” Wild said.

According to Wild, the addition of Residential Life to his responsibilities has so far made perfect sense as the First Year Center, Cornerstone, Residential Life and the Office of Student Conduct often work together. In his first few weeks with Residential Life, Wild has been working to get back in touch with the office’s goals and projects, but he said he has not found the transition to be too difficult.

“For Justin Carroll and I, we’ve worked together for many years, so you can’t imagine an easier transition. We still meet, we’re meeting every week, I’m talking to him everyday during this transition. It’s been great, having him as a mentor,” Wild said.