Nearing the end of the academic year, administrators filled a seven-month-long vacancy in the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities, temporarily replaced a longtime student affairs official and lost one director in the Center for Student Engagement, officials said Sunday.
The incoming officials will fill a portion of slots in the Division of Student Affairs following a turbulent year in which several top officials stepped down from their posts.
Colette Coleman, the assistant dean for Mount Vernon Campus residential engagement and administration, will serve for six months as the interim associate dean of students as of June 1 as officials finalize plans for the new Office of Enrollment and the Student Experience, University spokeswoman Maralee Csellar said in an email.
Tim Miller, who has served in the role since 2011, announced he would step down in March to serve as the vice president of student affairs at James Madison University, his alma mater.
“Colette is an outstanding leader with excellent professional judgment, strategic and analytic thinking, and passion for GW, among other qualities and skills, and I have tremendous confidence in her,” Laurie Koehler, the vice provost for enrollment management and retention, said in an email.
Csellar added that Christy Anthony, the deputy for equity system administration at Berklee College of Music, started this week to replace Gabriel Slifka as the head of the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities. Anthony has worked in student affairs at instutitons like Massachusetts Institute of Technology and American University, and she has years of experience related to Title IX policies and residence life, Csellar said.
Slifka, who served as the leader of SRR since 2006, left in October after being called for military service, which prompted an immediate external search for a replacement. At the time of his departure, officials lauded Slifka for creating fair judicial processes for students, while several students criticized him for his handling of sexual assault and harassment cases.
The office is also losing its sixth official of the academic year, Csellar said. Christina Witkowicki, the director of student involvement and Greek life, will leave her post May 25 to finish her dissertation. Anne Graham, the assistant director of student involvement and Greek life, will assume her responsibilities.
