Interim Residence Life Director Cory Ray from Idaho has been chosen to fill the top position in Portland State’s Residence Life program, a spot left vacant last week by former director Don Yackley.
Cory Ray was formerly the interim Residence Life Director at the University of Idaho. His selection followed former Residence Life Director Don Yackley’s departure from his position last week after coming to PSU as the program’s inaugural director three years ago. Yackley recommended Ray as a candidate to fill the position of Residence Life director to Dean of Students Wendy Endress.
Yackley was one of over 50 percent of the professional staff that left the Residence Life program in July. The Office of Student affairs is currently searching for a person to permanently fill the Assistant Director of Residence Life position, a position that Amy Juve left vacant when she left the program last month along with Yackley.
Ximena Barros will also fill an unoccupied Graduate Assistant position in the Residence Life program, after Angela McKinney left the program at the same time as Yackley and Juve, according to Endress.
Yackley said in mid-July that a difficult budget year caused the professional staff difficulties in managing Residence Life effectively and said issues with the budget over the last few months were related to his departure. Budget reductions for this fiscal year nearly caused the Residence Life program to lose a third of its $822,000 budget and caused shifts in the Residence Life program operations.
Yackley previously worked with Ray at the University of Idaho, where Yackley served as director of the school’s Residence Life program and Ray served as the assistant director. Ray took over for Yackley at the University of Idaho after Yackley came to Portland State to head the Residence Life program.
Ray will serve as interim director of Residence Life for the current fiscal year and the administration will determine in the fall how to fill the Resident Life director position permanently. Endress said that Ray visited the PSU campus last Monday to get oriented with the staff and program.
“He seems like a really competent guy with a lot of experience,” Endress said.