The Office of Student Life and the Orientation Office moved from the basement in Shriver Hall to Levering Hall on Friday, July 19 in order to centralize student services, said Associate Dean of Students Dorothy Sheppard.
The move was structured in such a way as to ensure that work stoppage by Hopkins staff would be minimized, said Dean Susan Boswell, who heads the Office of Student Life.
"The offices moved on Friday, July 19 and reopened the following Monday," said Sheppard. "No office suspended work for longer than a few hours."
Boswell is responsible for such activities and areas as residential life, ROTC, the Mattin Center, student conduct, Student Development and Programming, the Chaplain, both the counseling and health centers and the International Student and Scholar Services.
The Orientation Office is in charge of helping to acclimate new students to the Johns Hopkins community and to college life in general. It is also under Boswell's supervision and is currently headed by Casey Weinberg and Nikhil Joshi.
Boswell's office was formerly located in Shriver Hall Suite 6. It is now located in Levering 102, in close proximity to the Glass Pavilion. The Orientation Office is now located on the ground level of Levering.
Now occupying the basement of Shriver is the security office, which is headed by Ronald Mullen. Shriver is also now home to a portion of the human resources division.
The impetus behind the switch to Levering was to accommodate the needs of students.
According to Boswell, "This centralizes the student services office, so that it puts the people that students need to see in one location."
Garland Hall was originally another possibility for relocating the offices. However, because both the Office of Student Life and the Orientation office need to be in close proximity, Garland Hall was discounted as an option because there was not sufficient room to fit in both offices.
According to Boswell, although the new Office of Student Life has a slightly smaller waiting area than its previous one, this move brought her back to the office she first occupied at Johns Hopkins 14 years ago. She also stated that the new location puts the offices at the "heart of the campus."
"This is the first time that this office is in an office suite by itself," said Boswell. "Prior to moving to Levering, we shared space with the J-card office and the Orientation Office."
Although the locations of the offices have changed, none of the services they provide to students and to the Hopkins community will be altered. All contact information, such as phone and fax numbers, will remain the same.
"Staff are supportive of the move and are just trying to get settled," said Sheppard.
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