Furka moves to Residence Life

Newly appointed Director of Residence Life Deborah Furka came to Pitt five and a half years… Newly appointed Director of Residence Life Deborah Furka came to Pitt five and a half years ago to work as police chief.Several years later, she became the director of public safety – a seemingly natural transition to a position that she will continue to fill until Oct. 1.

She will leave the position to take on the role of director of Residence Life – a less intuitive transition – to fill a job left open when former assistant to the dean for Residence Life Denine Rocco resigned July 25.

Although he originally opened the search for a new director to outside applicants, Dean of Students Jack Daniel said he decided to look at people already employed at Pitt, after he received some applications from “strong internal candidates.”

“I needed a person with understanding of Pitt, because Student Affairs does not exist in isolation,” Daniel said, adding that Furka has worked with many members of the Pitt community through her roles as Pitt police chief and, later, director of public safety.

Furka’s positions at Pitt made her a strong candidate not only because of the involvement with other departments that they demanded, but because of the situations with which she dealt.

“I needed someone who was well experienced in dealing with crises,” Daniel said, explaining that Furka has frequently dealt with students’ problems during her time at Pitt.

Daniel added that many health and safety issues arose last year, both in residence halls and in fraternity houses.

“Parents are very concerned with health and safety issues,” said Daniel, who is also vice provost for undergraduate studies.

In addition to her role in public safety, Furka helped to review and construct recommendations last year for improving Pitt’s Greek and student advising systems.

Those recommendations are now being used to make “vast improvements” to the Greek system, Daniel said, adding that he also anticipated “vast improvements for Residence Life at Pitt,” with Furka’s help.

Managerial experience figured prominently among Daniel’s considerations when selecting a person to replace Denine Rocco, but many more issues played a role in his decision.

“Deborah is very experienced in managing diversity and bringing diversity to her unit,” Daniel said, explaining that diversity at Pitt is reflected in the daily issues in Residence Life and Student Affairs.

He also explained that Furka’s skills at “using challenges as an opportunity for excellence,” her experience dealing with crises through her role in public safety, and her familiarity with Residence Life from her time as a student security aide at Kent State, her alma mater, factored into his decision.

“We have a tremendously experienced person,” Daniel said of Furka.

Many of the issues facing people in Residence Life remain the same on any campus, Furka said, including a “global responsibility for growth and development of the students within the residence halls, and taking the residence halls and the students through that growth.”

But she added that Pitt’s urban campus adds more dimensions to the role of Residence Life.

“We have to be more creative, but it also gives students more opportunity to go out and explore,” Furka said of Pitt’s surroundings. “Policing a college campus in an urban environment is different.”

“I’m looking forward, really, to getting to know the staff,” Furka said, adding that, through her former positions at Pitt, she has worked with a lot of people in Residence Life.

“There’s already a knowledge there, and a relationship,” she added.

Furka pointed out that her recent positions might not indicate any experience in Residence Life, but she explained that her role in Residence Life as a student at Kent State, combined with her time dealing with students through her security roles at Pitt, has given her a good deal of experience in the field.”When I was in Residence Life before, I truly enjoyed it,” she said. “It took me a while to get back here, but I’m back.”

Furka’s change in position might seem nearly as abrupt as Rocco’s summer resignation from the position, but Rocco indicated that such changes occur naturally in Residence Life.

“You come to expect turnover,” she said. “Folks don’t stay in it for long periods of time.”

“Any time a great opportunity comes along, you have to take it,” she added.

Rocco resigned July 25 to work at the University of Akron as the interim associate vice president of Student Affairs, where former Pitt Dean of Students Sharon Johnson is the interim vice president for Student Affairs.

Rocco’s position, assistant to the dean for Residence Life, was changed when Associate Dean of Student Affairs Birney Harrigan took over as interim director of Residence Life.

When asked about the change in title and organization of the position following her resignation, Rocco said only that it was “interesting.”

The change in title will not be the only change in the office of Residence Life, Daniel indicated.

“We need to make the residence halls student-centered,” he said.

Daniel said that the Emerging Leader Program, a part of the Pitt Pathway, had a pilot ready and that he planned for it to be an exemplary model program for other schools.

He also detailed changes to Fresh Start, formerly freshman studies, which now will have more involvement from the College of Arts and Sciences.

Daniel said that several other schools, including Cleveland State University, have positions similar to his that combine undergraduate studies and Student Affairs under one administrator. He also said that Pitt’s department was still in too great a state of transition for him to accurately judge its progression.

Daniel said that the past year had taught him a good deal about students – primarily about the quality and hours of service they need from Student Life employees.

“[Students are] not on a nine-to-five clock,” he said.

Daniel said that it was a “misnomer” to say that he was away for the summer, and that he had been doing his job from out of town from June 1 to August 29. He would not comment on whether any other employees of student life would be able to do their jobs from out of town.