You have been chosen to be the hall director for the largest residence hall on Bluffton’s campus. Now, what do you do? Maybe you have all the knowledge in the world of what a hall director does, or maybe you have no experience with residence life at all.
Photo by Nicole Centofanti.
The latter of the two was the case for Eli Herman, the hall director of Ropp Hall. He had no prior experience with residence life in a college or university setting before working at Bluffton University as the hall director for Hirschy Hall and Hirschy Annex in 2016-17.
Herman is from Jersey Shore, Pa. During his undergraduate studies, he was a dual major in marketing and management. Now, he is attending Bowling Green State University getting his master’s degree in college student personnel.
Ropp Hall is Herman’s second position as a hall director on Bluffton’s campus.
“I think Ropp has a lot of character, a lot of history and a lot of tradition,” said Herman. “I came in and some of my RAs had already lived there, so they knew what that felt like. I help keep those traditions going.”
Ropp Hall houses 300 students and employs six resident advisers. Due to the large number of students, Ropp Hall has a graduate assistant as the hall director rather than a traditional undergraduate student.
“I think we have a lot of really unique spaces in Ropp,” said Herman. “Whether you look at our workout room, which is awesome with old-school workout equipment, [or] the Pit, which is just a multipurpose room.”
One of the more common places where students hang out in Ropp Hall is the Pit.
“There’s always people just laying around, studying [and] reading in the Pit, as well,” said Herman. “Then in the main lobby, there’s always a core group of people playing magic or tabletop games, and I really appreciate that.”
The RAs for Ropp Hall are junior Janelle Schmucker, junior Dan Gregg, senior Paul Frey, junior Madeleine Elwell, junior Ben Black and junior Chanhee Hwang.
“I love working under Eli,” said Black. “He’s such a fun person to work under. I’m really glad I got put with him as a hall director.”
One of Herman’s jobs as hall director is meeting with his RAs weekly, individually and as a group.
“Eli’s a person who I can just have fun with,” said Black. “I see [him] as a friend. I see [him] as someone who I can go and talk to about anything, and he also kind of works on interpersonal relationships. In our one-on-ones he talks a lot about interpersonal trying to see how I can better my floor.”
Herman is not only the hall director for Ropp Hall; he has a couple other jobs around campus.
Aside from being a hall director, Herman also works in the Office of Student Involvement with Mark Bourassa and Kevin White.
One of Herman’s student involvement jobs is being in charge of different committees. Some of those committees include Lil’ Sibs Weekend, blood drives, Homecoming and Cabaret for a Cause.
This is Herman’s last semester at Bluffton. After he graduates from Bowling Green State University, he plans to move to New York City with his partner, who recently landed a job offer there, and he is going to apply to different universities around the area for housing or activity positions.
If interested in residence life, contact Kevin Williams, Bluffton’s director of residence life.
