The University of Idaho Dean of Students Office will be without Greek advisors at the end of the month after Matt Kurz and Jordyn Wright announced earlier this week that they have both accepted positions at other universities.
Kurz has been the Greek Adviser for the last four and a half years. He accepted a position as the Director of Student Development and Campus Vibrancy at Stetson University in DeLand, Fla.
“I’m really excited. I love the University of Idaho and the Palouse and all these places, but I’m really excited for the new opportunity and to continue my professional career,” Kurz said.
Wright, the assistant Greek adviser, did not anticipate that she would be leaving UI so soon, but said the process for the position she accepted went much quicker than expected. Wright will be a financial aid and scholarship coordinator at Washington State University–Tri-Cities. Wright and Kurz each knew the other saw potential to leave UI, but did not anticipate that the opportunities would come at the same time.
“I saw the opportunity and it arose much faster than anticipated and it was too good to pass up,” Wright said. “It is a great advancement for me in higher education to continue learning about areas that affect students and financial aid is often considered a crisis issue for students.”
Wright said she will miss working with Greek life but is looking forward to the challenges of learning a new position.
“Greek life will always be a major part of who I am and it’s what inspired me to go on to higher education. It will be sad to not be advising Greek life but there’s so many volunteer opportunities within our chapters that I think I’ll be really involved just not in an administrator way,” Wright said. “It’s going to be something completely new and I’m looking forward to the challenge and getting to know new people and know new procedures.”
Kurz and Wright are in the process of compiling a manual for the incoming Greek life staff, which will be hired later this fall.
Dean of Students Bruce Pitman said he’ll miss Wright and Kurz and the skills they bring to the Greek advising positions.
“I think they provide excellent service to students and I’m going to miss them. They have good positive relationships with the students, but at the same time they are very effective at setting boundaries with our Greek system,” Pitman said.
Pitman said they intend to fill the Greek adviser position first so that whoever is hired can be a part of the process of choosing an assistant Greek adviser. Pitman said he hopes to fill the position quickly in order to continue to provide top-notch advising services to the Greek system. He said until the position is filled, the Dean of Students office will serve as the primary resource for Greek students.
“It’ll be difficult. We’re going to have to figure out how to provide some of those services on an interim basis at least until a decision is made on the Greek adviser’s position,” Pitman said.
Pitman said the Greek task force initiatives will not be affected by the lack of Greek advisers.
“I was going to depend on them to help with a lot of that work, but the kind of major projects the Greek task force was recommending and the president has endorsed is generally outside the scope of the day-to-day work of the Greek adviser,” Pitman said.
Pitman said he will miss having Kurz and Wright in the office because of everything they do outside of their roles as Greek advisers.
“I’ll miss their humor and I’ll miss them as good colleagues because they both do more than just Greek advising,” Pitman said. “In this office you have to be a generalist to an extent and Matt was very involved with student recruitment initiatives, very actively involved with some of our student retention work, new student orientation and academic support services.”
Kaitlyn Krasselt can be reached at [email protected]