When Assistant Director of Campus Programs for Multicultural Life Anita Doddi announced her resignation she prompted conversations in Campus Programs and elsewhere on campus about staff workloads.

Doddi, who came to Macalester in June of 2002, said that she had considered finishing out the year, but that she ultimately decided to leave at the end of fall semester.

Working in student activities within the Campus Programs office as a liaison to the Department of Multicultural Life, Doddi works directly with multicultural organizations on campus. She said she advises each organization differently, providing support as an advisor, for assistance in programming events as well as acting as a general resource person.

Additionally, Doddi works with Assistant Director of Campus Programs Tara Stormoen in supervising the Safe Walk program, formerly called the Escort Service, whose members now do programming work as well. She also does leader training for Orientation and supervises Cultural House programming.

Doddi said that she is leaving her position primarily for personal reasons, but added that Macalester is no longer a good fit for her.

“Working in student affairs is more of a lifestyle than a job,” she said. “I can’t do the lifestyle piece anymore. I thought that I could do it, but right now I’m just in a different place.”

She explained that since getting married over the summer, the intensity of her personal life has made it difficult to juggle her home life with the demands and non-traditional hours of her position. (Student activities staff are often required to work evenings as opposed to a nine-to-five schedule.)

Dean of Students Laurie Hamre sympathized with Doddi’s concerns. “It’s hard to have a life and do that job,” she said.

Hamre said that the demands of Doddi’s work exist in all student affairs jobs. “Student activities positions at just about any school tend to be burn-out jobs,” she said.

Stormoen echoed Hamre’s assessment. “There’s a lot of ambiguity,” she said. “We all wear so many hats. That’s really a function of working in student affairs.”

Doddi said that one of her biggest frustrations is the breadth of the job descriptions of staff in her office.

“Faculty and staff are over-committed,” Doddi said. “The job descriptions are just too big. People can’t focus on specifics and end up being stretched too thin.”

She said that the ambiguity of her position is difficult to manage. “I walk in to work a lot of the time and have no idea what’s going to happen,” she said.

“There’s a lot going on; it’s just too busy for the size of the school.”

Director of Multicultural Life Joi Lewis said that she anticipates staffing being an increased problem in her area and that Doddi’s departure will not help.

“We already are understaffed,” she said. “For the programs we’re providing, there aren’t enough people. There isn’t enough time in the day. I worry a little bit about doing too many things and not doing them well.”

Both Lewis and Doddi were mindful that the financial situation of the college makes adding resources a difficult problem to approach.

“It will surprise no one to hear that there are more staff needed,” Hamre said. “It’s a difficult time at the college to request additional positions.”

Lewis said that she hopes to apply for grants in order to hire additional staff in the Multicultural Office, which currently has three members.

Hamre acknowledged that Macalester’s staffing has always been thin, but that the amount of programming, as well as students’ tendency to utilize staff resources, has increased dramatically in recent years.

She said that groups of students as well as faculty and staff are currently assessing the question of whether or not Macalester is over-programmed.

“We have to cut programs,” Hamre said. “We have to make changes and evaluate the programs we offer to make sure that everything we do is really servicing the needs of students.”

Human Resources posted the newly available position internally at the beginning of this week, and will post it externally on Monday.

Hamre said that Wagner hopes to find a replacement by Feb. 1. She said that she helped Wagner to tweak the job description.

“Brian worked hard at making the small changes that he could make,” she said. “We’ll try and be as clear as possible with candidates about the demands of the job. He’s done what he can to make it more doable.”

Stormoen that the announcement of Doddi’s departure prompted important conversations in Campus Programs about ways to better manage the office.

“Brian opened it up pretty broadly,” she said. “We talked about basic maintenance stuff. Our web site hasn’t been updated in two years.”

One of Doddi’s primary frustrations, she said, is the lack of a department coordinator in Campus Programs.

“We’re just a lean and mean staff,” Stormoen said. “And we have the largest staff within student affairs. I’m sure lots of other departments need people too.”