After the termination of the previous director of auxiliary services, current resident director of Klassen Hall, Kim Riddle, will step in and take this position, putting her in charge of these departments: PLNU and Mission Valley Conference Services, Mail Services and Reprographics.
For the month of October, Riddle will be fulfilling both the roles of Director of Auxiliary Services and Resident Director of Klassen Hall. Working with her old supervisor, Jeff Bolster, Dean of Students, and her new supervisor, Cynthia Chappell, AVP for Financial and Auxiliary Services, Riddle says an agreement has been reached so that she can do both jobs.
“When I went through the process to get hired, [they] both agreed upon how they could figure out this transition knowing that it was not easy to transition out of being a RD or to transition into this job,” said Riddle. “They worked really, really well together to make it so that they knew how much they needed me over here, to start right away, even though I’m not sure what I’m doing.”
As October ends, Riddle will officially transition out of her RD position and take on the full-time responsibilities of being Director of Auxiliary Services. Residential Life has already begun the process of applications to fill the position. A posting went onto PLNU’s online job board advertising the position on Sept.18.
Though new to the position as director, Riddle has worked closely with one of the branches of Auxiliary Services, Conference Services, during the summer time for the past four years, said Riddle. Andrew Yates, Conference Services Coordinator, said that Riddle’s previous experience with Conference Services will only benefit her in the future.
“I think it’s really good that Kim already has a relationship already formed with our outside groups during the summer,” said Yates. “I have emailed for the past week or so with the head guy from the Hume camps, his name is Jeff Brannon, and he’s really excited that Kim’s taking over and that he already knows her.”
According to Yates, Riddle is welcoming and familiar to summer camp staff.
“I’m sure a lot of groups will feel the same way [about her working in this position],” said Yates. “They like working with Kim and they’re glad it’ll be a familiar face and somebody that they know they can work well with.”
The position for a new Director of Auxiliary Services opened up after the previous Director, Julie Alexander, was terminated. All staff and faculty were informed of this via email over the summer.
“I found out that Julie was fired from an email. I remember very clearly, it was August 1, the first of the month. I had replied, it was about 8:45 in the morning, I replied to an email that Julie had sent me, and I got an automatic reply back stating that she no longer worked here and that if they had any issues regarding Conference Services, to contact me,” said Yates.
Yates said that he remembers what happened clearly because the email was so direct and because response was so quick from others in the office. The rest of the staff and faculty at PLNU were informed about Alexander’s termination and the reasons behind the action later on in the day when Administration sent out an email.
Suspicions arose when all of the departments at PLNU were audited this past summer and numbers were failing to add up in the Auxiliary Services department. According to Yates, the audit revealed that tampering with University funds had been happening over the course of four years.
Details regarding Alexander’s termination were kept confidential, leaving many to speculate over what had happened.
“I don’t know what those questions are or anything like that, but I could sense that Julie was really stressed and that made it a little more difficult on me, but at the same time, I didn’t know what was going on,” said Yates.
Lisa Morehead, Coordinator of Auxiliary Services, did not wish to comment.
Kim Riddle commented that she was not allowed to tell any details she might know.
