SALP reorganizes staff, adds new positions

Portland State’s Student Activities and Leadership Programs began a reorganization of leadership positions between winter and spring quarters, beginning a process which will take until summer term to complete.

SALP is the organization that oversees everything from student-run groups like Food For Thought Cafe to clubs such as the PSU interfaith coalition, as well as student government (the Associated Students of Portland State University) and Greek Life. Each student group is housed within a branch of SALP, where student leaders report to administrative advisors for help funding and running their group.

It was a bit of a shock, then, for SALP to be faced with multiple open positions after promotions and relocations led to vacancies in the group. In addition to these vacancies, a new advising position was created after student publications was moved under the SALP umbrella beginning with the 2013–14 school year.

Because of the vacancies and the time and resources typically needed for outside hiring, PSU’s Office of Human Resources approved direct appointments in order to keep SALP operating normally.

“This is kind of the biggest reorganization we have ever done,” said Rachel Samuelson, new coordinator of Student Leaders for Service, a student group housed within SALP. “There was already a lot of shifting around while we had to figure out three positions. But there were more.”

Samuelson has taken over SLS from Jessica Conley, who departed for California because her husband received a new job appointment. Samuelson believes her former position as the advisor for Spiritual and International Groups, another group housed within SALP, will be key to helping her transition to SLS.

“I’m really excited [about] this opportunity. I had already been incorporating service work with my old job, through the lens of religious cooperation and relationship building. And here I’ll still be able to work with some of my old programs.”

Taking over Spritual and International Groups will be Greg King, who joins Casey Payseno, SALP’s new academic advisor, and Courtney Bailey, the arts and advocacy advisor.

Bailey replaces Katie Jundt, who took over as interim associate director for all of SALP until the job could be broken into two new, unique associate director positions—one advising ASPSU and Greek Life, and the other overseeing risk management, community standards and the Organization Budget Council.

Jundt will take one of the new associate director positions, while the second will be filled traditionally, through an outside hire. Although she expressed surprise over the “perfect storm” of the reorganization’s timing, Jundt joined Samuelson in the hope that the changes will stick and will be in SALP’s best interest for the future.

“I think—hopefully, crossing our fingers—it will be like this for a while.”

Historically, many of the advising positions in SALP are held for one or two years, as graduate students and recent graduates find their way in and out of administrative and leadership positions. But many of the positions SALP needed to fill had been occupied for more than two, and in some cases four, years.

“It’s really because of the great community and the amazing students that we retain these positions a lot longer than expected,”
Samuelson said.

In addition to breaking up the associate directorship into two positions, SALP announced the acquisition of student publications after the retirement of the current publications advisor, Judson Randall.

This reorganization, which will bring publications such as the Vanguard and the Rearguard under SALP’s umbrella, will require the creation of a new advising position, and another search for a candidate.

Current advisor Tana Atchley is chairing the search for the student media advisor, a position SALP is hoping to fill by summer. A board of experienced advisors, including staffers at The Oregonian, will conduct about 10 interviews to find the best candidate.

But even though SALP finds themselves in the thick of a lengthy hiring process, Jundt couldn’t help but express enthusiasm for the next phase in SALP’s organization.

“We are all really excited. I’m particularly excited about bringing in new people from outside PSU, to bring new ideas from new campuses.”