SEAHO Report - Holiday 2020 - 24

STUDENT AFFAIRS AROUND THE REGION
Elizabeth Douglas, Business Manager

University of Southern Mississippi

B. Nick Nichols, Community Director, Deavenport and
Dogwood communities

Maggie Schmutz, Graduate Residence Director, Hurst
and Ruby communities

New Staff Member - Marti Wein (Residence Life
Coordinator for Hattiesburg & Mississippi Halls &
Cedarbrook Apartments)
The housing department have worked to create
efficient processes in various areas, in spite of the
COVID-19 challenges:
*E
 xtension of the self-assignment to the incoming
freshmen students.
*M
 erging the Desk Operation application process to
Mercury (housing software).
*C
 ondensing over half of the housing online forms
into Mercury for a unified tracking purposes.
*S
 uccessfully extending the fall Move- In process to
accommodate the COVID-19 requirements.   

Cassidy Snapka, Marketing and Communications
Coordinator

SOUTH CAROLINA UPDATES

Travis Houston, Community Director, Magnolia and
Oak communities
Clair Bailey, Graduate Residence Director, Cresswell
and Hathorn communities
Christian Barefield, Graduate Residence Director,
Griffis and Nunnelee communities

I'd like to thank Tina Belcher, Jason Boler, Makeetha
Crain, Dante Hill, and Jessica Thornton for taking
on additional responsibilities in the 8 months before
we were able to successfully hire Bob to the team
and restructure the residential education leadership
members. I'd also like to thank our facilities &
custodial, and residential education team members
for their patience as we worked through all things
COVID-19 amid significant departmental leadership
vacancies.
NEW SUCCESSFUL PROCESSES
" Safe Return Home " for our students, including
managing 4 isolation and quarantine sites, and
health and safety initiatives for our students and staff
members.
Residential Curriculum revised and launched our 3
Educational Priorities for Mississippi State: Personal
Responsibility, Inclusive Residential Communities, and
Global Citizenship.
Launch of MS State's Luckyday learning community.
Created in 2019 by the Luckyday Foundation of
Jackson, the inaugural class of nine will receive a
$6,000 annual scholarship for up to four years, must
be a first-time entering first-year student from
Mississippi, and has earned at least a 3.0 GPA in high
school and ACT of 20-28.
The Mississippi State Residence Hall Association
(RHA) and Department of Housing and Residence Life
is pleased to announce a donation of $10,000 to the
Boys and Girls Club of Starkville, MS from their annual
Haunted House event. 

24

Clemson University
Tiffany Deal joins us as the Community Director for
Douthit East. She comes to us most recently from
Presbyterian College. 
South Carolina Housing Officers Association
SCHOA hosted our annual conference virtually in
October and had 86 attendees from 16 institutions
register for the conference! A big shout-out to Dan
Colascione and his team at the University of South
Carolina for hosting a great conference! Catherine
Kareores won the Best of SCHOA Award for her
presentation titled " Collaborating with Faculty as a
Graduate Student " which she will be presenting at
SEAHO in the spring!
Elections for vacant executive board positions were
held at the annual SCHOA business meeting and we are
excited to welcome Cody Dunlap as our President-Elect
and Daniel Francis as our Secretary/Treasurer! We have
two remaining vacancies that the board will work to
fill.
The SCHOA executive board for 2020-2021 includes:
Past-President: Dillon Beckford
President: Kale Jeffords
President-Elect: Cody Dunlap
SEAHO State Representative: Kayla Harvey
Secretary/Treasurer: Daniel Francis
Graduate Student Representative: Vacant
Technology and Marketing Committee Chair: Vacant
SEAHO Report - Holiday 2020

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