Few processes in student affairs feel as high-stakes, or as unpredictable, as hiring. Whether expanding a team, replacing a key staff member, or adapting to shifting institutional priorities, today’s hiring landscape requires more than just filling a vacancy. This piece’s four contributing authors share how they are navigating recruitment and hiring amid ongoing change and uncertainty in higher education and their organization/institution. Their reflections raise important questions: How do we build hiring processes that embrace innovation rather than default to what’s familiar? How do we stay adaptable when decisions or structures shift around us?
What emerges across these perspectives is that effective hiring processes today demand intentionality, creativity, and a people-centered approach. From building candidate pools through personal outreach to designing roles around team needs and individual strengths, these stories highlight the strategic thinking required to build resilient, student-focused teams. Even in moments of uncertainty, these professionals remind us that how and who we hire matters more than ever.
Alex Gaskin – Talent Management Director, Pi Beta Phi Fraternity for Women
At Pi Beta Phi Headquarters, we almost always adapt, evolve, or adjust to the changing world around us. Like many other organizations, we navigate change across all departments and teams, whether major strategic shifts for the Fraternity or small, more subtle changes to processes and procedures. That’s certainly been the case in our hiring process and overall talent management approach. I can remember a time when an “HQ structure change” felt huge and scary, but over the last several years, it’s morphed into something that is gladly welcomed and, dare I say, expected from our staff.
Over time, we have seen the major benefits of having the right people in the right seats at the right time. With very intentional hiring practices and leadership committed to maximizing our talent, we can prepare for the uncertainty and navigate change in the moment. Regular talent discussions allow leadership to make adjustments as needed. Sometimes that means our people shift roles, responsibilities, supervisors, teams, or all of the above to encourage further development. As talent management director, I often say in interviews that Pi Phi is more people-centric than position-centric, which allows us flexibility as priorities change. It is also an incredible opportunity for our staff to grow and develop while maximizing their unique skills. Strategic moves have led us to better processes, new ideas, and often-refreshed perspectives. Employees have learned to be nimble and trust leadership to place them in the right roles at the right time.
Kyle McCoil – Associate Dean of Student Affairs and Dean of Sophomores and Juniors, Washington and Lee University
Student affairs professionals understand the complexity of today’s higher education landscape. Whether it is evolving student needs, new leadership, staffing changes, or financial instability, uncertainty feels like the only constant factor in many ways. As someone who works at a small liberal arts college where nearly 70% of students are affiliated with fraternities or sororities, I am acutely aware of the need to intentionally consider these factors and effectively respond to best support the work that we engage in as fraternity and sorority life professionals. This intentionality can be seen in our recent decision to increase our support for Fraternity and Sorority Life (formerly Greek Life), which includes hiring an additional full-time employee, an assistant director for fraternity and sorority life. This decision is more than a staffing change; it represents an institutional commitment to support this area of the student experience. Rather than sit idly, we have embraced change to ensure our students see our commitment to them. We are fortunate to have the resources and support of leadership to make these changes, particularly during times of uncertainty.
Budgets and staffing decisions are increasingly scrutinized due to the socio-political climate, shifting institutional priorities, and policy changes. To navigate these times of uncertainty, we have embraced the belief that we must build systems, processes, and teams that are flexible, resilient, and focused on supporting the needs of all students. When considering the job market and hiring new staff in times of uncertainty, I have appreciated the intentionality we have taken when crafting job descriptions. One of the most powerful strategies we have embraced as a division is designing roles with the help of the Council for the Advancement of Standards (CAS) resources and intentionally offering a broader set of responsibilities to challenge the idea of working in silos. Although primary job responsibilities and structures remain, secondary responsibilities intentionally bridge our functional areas. This approach improves our collaborative efforts, fosters professional adaptability, and better prepares staff to navigate the ever-changing higher education landscape. We cannot predict or control every variable, but we should continue to focus on the things within our control. Uncertainty is inevitable, but we will persevere with dedication, resilience, and courageous leadership.
Thomas Arce – Director of Student Involvement and New Student Programs, Valparaiso University
Growing up, I learned about adaptability and change from mis abuelos (grandparents), immigrants from Mexico, who arrived in Southern Texas and then made Northwest Indiana their home to raise a family of nine. Adjusting to new people, places, and priorities is what my familia has endured and witnessed over the last 60 years. Watching my grandparents navigate change, even at a young age, has stood out to me the most when I fast forward to my current career in higher education. In my professional work, I’m grounded in authentic leadership, leading from my personal values and showing up as who I am today, having been shaped by yesteryear. Mis abuelos influenced what I now know as my current values of authenticity, adaptability, and accountability. These 3 As in my professional work have led me to understand that change is not necessarily a setback but an opportunity – though that statement is easier said than lived through. When I think about an ever-changing landscape in my professional work and moments of difficulty, I think back to the stories of mis abuelos and their endurance to navigate a new America so many years ago. I think about their quick shifts to meeting people in their community, continuing to learn of new places in their surroundings, and constantly changing their priorities to keep up with the times. I reflect on my familia because this is where I am grounded, where I learned about resilience – bouncing back to recover when moving forward.
Valparaiso University (Valpo) is a small private Independent Lutheran university with 2,142 (fall 2024) undergraduate students. Valpo’s commitment is to prepare students to lead and serve in church and society. A thriving fraternity and sorority life community represents approximately 25% of all undergraduate students with a mission of providing an experience grounded in academic achievement, brotherhood and sisterhood, community, continued growth, leadership, service, and shared purpose. While joining the Valparaiso University community a year ago, I encountered structural departmental changes and campus culture shifts that were out of my control. These changes directly impacted my work as a fraternity/sorority professional and the students leading and serving the fraternity and sorority community. There were four factors that guided me through times of uncertainty and what I know to be true: that everything is going to be okay.
Change is constant. I needed to understand that dwelling on the changes did no good to me or the students I serve; that change is constantly around us, or as Bruce Lee famously said, “Be like water.” Water changes shape. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup; if you put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle. Understanding that change was and is rapidly occurring required shifting my mindset to adjust and move on.
In my practice, I have applied the following to help navigate uncertainty:
- Trust people and relationships: leaning into creating opportunities from the structural changes means trusting the people that the change is impacting: students. Placing time and energy on cultivating relationships is an important factor while leading through change. Our students know their needs best, and as a leader, listening and trusting is key.Â
- Less prep, more presence: strategic planning or “big-picture” visioning cannot save us, nor can we hide behind these tools. It is important to show up each and every day ready to tackle challenges and changes with a positive attitude. Moreover, being present in the fraternity and sorority community while doing so was equally valuable.Â
- Pay attention and growth will peak out: in true #PlantParent fashion, if you pay attention to living things, they will prosper and grow. Our students and the work we aim to accomplish as fraternity/sorority professionals are the same. Paying attention to the student leaders, their organizations, and what matters deeply to them allows growth to peek out and sprout new hope.Â
Overall, navigating organizational change isn’t as easy as these lessons demonstrate, nor could I fully compare how mis abuelos transitioned to a new environment so many years ago. What I know to be true, though, is that change can be overcome, and paying close attention to the factors that could aid in solution-making will be the key to success.
Andrew Hohn – Senior Associate Director of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
We have recently had our first vacancy in Fraternity and Sorority Affairs in over five years. With this vacancy, we’ve been thrown back into the search process. A lot has changed over the past five years — both within our campus human resources (HR) procedures and across the broader landscape of the profession — and I’ll admit that at times I’ve felt both overwhelmed and underwhelmed throughout this process. I’ve found our HR system to be simultaneously streamlined and stagnant.
I’ve also spoken with many of my colleagues who are struggling to fill positions. Numerous friends who are conducting searches have voiced concerns about the candidate pool not meeting the expectations of the roles. While I’ve seen some of that myself, I’ve also found there are many qualified individuals out there — we may have just become stagnant in how we approach our search processes.
If you know me, you know I believe in outreach and recruitment. You may have even been asked to provide a recommendation in the past. Working at a university located in the middle of Illinois, surrounded by cornfields and two hours away from any major city, we have learned we need to be more aggressive in our approach. We understand that the size and location of our community can be deterrents, and we have accepted that we need to nudge people to consider applying.
What I have learned is this strategy works for us. The last two staff members we hired came to us through colleague recommendations. I personally reached out to both and encouraged them to apply. One stayed for five years, and the other is still with us. In our current search, two of our three finalists are also individuals we identified and contacted through our recommendation and outreach process.I have no doubt that our applicant pool would not be as strong without the colleagues who have shared names and helped us with outreach. Conducting a search is time-consuming and can be overwhelming. But if we want to build strong teams, we have to be willing to put in the work — sometimes, that means doing more than just posting a job description.
