SALD director leaves CSB+SJU

Student Activities and Leadership Development is facing another departure as Associate Director for Finances and Operations Trish Doran resigned last Tuesday.

Doran, who had worked at CSB and SJU for over 20 years, was the only full-time staff member working in the SALD office after former Associate Director of Student Engagement Andrew Kroska left in May after eight months in his position. Doran was unable to be reached for comment.

“She’s irreplaceable,” said Zoe Dalziel, CSB senior and SALD marketing manager. “She’s, I’d say, the best thing that CSB+SJU had.”

Doran managed the budgets for the student Senates, all clubs on campus and the Joint Events Council and made all purchases approved by the Co-Funding Board and the student Senates. She served as the Co-Funding Board advisor and joint club advisor. She also created the club Canvas training courses and the club resources SharePoint. Additionally, after former Associate Director of Programming Lacey Solheid’s departure in January 2021, Doran led orientation planning and SALD programming.

“She just was the best,” SJU junior Trent Thompson said. “She knew everything—what needed to be done, how it should be done and what was the best course of action. We didn’t do anything—we never moved a step—without consulting Trish with any of our purchases or ventures.”

CSB Dean of Students Jody Terhaar and SJU Dean of Students Mike Connolly plan to help cover Doran’s duties for the time being, along with other student development employees. Terhaar and Connolly said there is no plan to look for a replacement as of now, as a search for an Associate Director of Student Engagement this summer did not yield a deep pool of applicants.

They are looking to hire someone to a part-time, 20-30 hours a week position to help with purchasing, while starting to evaluate a potential restructuring of Student Activities.

“Jody and I are so committed to making sure that this doesn’t impact clubs,” Connolly said. “We want clubs to be able to fill out the same Forms Manager that they always have for funding, events and space allocation. We’ll handle things on the back end, so everything on the front end we want to be seamless.”

Terhaar and Connolly said the initial priorities are to help SALD student workers put on a successful Family Weekend on Oct. 21-23 and to continue processing club expense requests smoothly. Both Connolly and Terhaar attended the Co-Funding Board meeting on Monday.

Connolly plans to cover some of the programming components of Doran’s position, while Terhaar will step in with club finances and interaction. Additionally, CSB Assistant Dean of Students Marcia Mahlum will help with purchasing. The three of them, along with SJU Assistant Dean of Students Amanda Erdman, are setting up an office schedule so that the SALD office is staffed. The deans hope the transition goes smoothly but said that Doran’s contributions will be difficult to replicate.

“There’s a lot of learning that we’re having to do, so things may not be as smooth as they were” Terhaar said. “Trish was sometimes nearly a miracle worker with the things she was able to get done.”

Along with Doran’s high performance of her job duties, Connolly and Terhaar also praised her care for students and devotion to CSB and SJU.

“Trish cared deeply about her students in a way that offered encouragement, belief in what they were able to accomplish [and] challenged them to do their best,” Terhaar said. “She brought herself to her work and shared herself with her students in ways that exuded that care she had for them and that belief that she had in everything that they were capable of.”

Doran’s departure was abrupt, as she submitted her letter of resignation on Tuesday and left on Wednesday. Thompson, who knows Doran from sitting on the Co-Funding Board and serving as an orientation coordinator for this school year, said that the wide range of her duties may have contributed to her decision to leave.

“It’s plain as day to everybody who ever stepped foot in the student activities office that she, since Lacey left and since Andrew left, was overwhelmed,” Thompson said. “I can’t say for sure that was a contributing factor, but I could imagine that that would have been a big thing.”

Others who worked with Doran echoed Thompson’s thoughts.

“Trish, from my perspective, was very unappreciated by some people, and that kind of wore on her,” Dalziel said.

Now, as the schools move forward without Doran, some students will miss her presence going forward.

“She’s like my mom, my Minnesota mom,” Dalziel said. “If anything happened, Trish would be the first one people would tell. She was just a good spirit. Anyone who walked in the door, she was always welcoming. There’s nothing bad to say about Trish. She was just amazing.”