Danielle Holmes has left her position as area director for Stevens Leased Housing (SLH), as her former position has been permanently eliminated. Decreased levels of residence in SLH and financial stress on the university due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic are the primary reasons for Holmes’s departure and the retirement of the SLH area directorship.
Holmes joined the Stevens community in July 2016. During her tenure as area director, she played an outsize role in the Office of Residential Education (and its predecessor, the Office of Residence Life). She initiated or was highly involved with implementing several programs in that office, including the Resident Director Leadership Development Series. Holmes remained heavily involved with the resident assistant selection process, and also assisted in developing and promoting the CARE House and the Lore-El Center for Women’s Leadership.
Prior to working at Stevens, Holmes had a lengthy career in student development and residence life, including at Rider University and McDaniel College.
In Stevens-owned housing, resident students often interact with their resident assistant — students who are hired to ensure that residents are complying with policies and laws, and who also host events for residents. In SLH (a program where Stevens rented commercial apartment units in the Hoboken area and sublet them to students, who paid Stevens as if they were living on-campus), there is typically one resident assistant for a group of neighboring buildings. Resident assistants are themselves overseen by resident directors — full-time paid staff who coordinate the actions of resident assistants in a number of residences. Between the resident directors and the upper administration of the Office of Residence Education lie the area directors, who are tasked with broadly presiding over the goals of a large zone of residences (for example, there is one area director for “upper campus,” one for “lower campus,” etc.). Area directors play an important role in the Stevens community, as they work directly with resident directors and resident assistants to implement programs while also working closely with administrators. Holmes was the area director for all of SLH, and thus had a large degree of involvement in operations and planning pertaining to resident students who did not live on campus.
Holmes’s departure coincides with plans to reduce the number of retained Hoboken leases by the university. When asked about these plans, Stacy M. Flowers, Director of Residential Education, said “The institution has retained some leases for returning student housing. Stevens students have demonstrated less interest in Stevens Leased Housing over the past few years, so we will not lease as many apartments in the coming years. Additionally, as Stevens’ new residential towers are scheduled to open in fall of 2022, the need for leased apartments will be significantly less.”
Most extant SLH units were vacated near the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Spring 2020 semester.
Holmes’ departure comes at a time when Stevens has implemented a hiring freeze and laid off many other employees. In an email sent to the Stevens community on October 21, 2020, President Nariman Farvardin announced a “number of furloughs and layoffs including through some departmental reorganizations,” as well as a “Voluntary Retirement Incentive Program.” These layoffs and reorganizations were implemented to address a $36 million budget deficit faced by the university, primarily as a result of the pandemic.
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