By Sarah Garrecht and Elizabeth Hill

Arizona Daily Wildcat

It's like administrative musical chairs.

Five University of Arizona positions were filled with interim or acting directors over the summer, and one interim director moved into a permanent slot.

The Dean of Students office experienced two changes as a result of management reorganization.

Carol Thompson became the official associate dean of students on June 1, after spending "almost an entire year" as the interim person for the same position, she said.

While Thompson was promoted to the position, new acting Assistant Dean of Students Veda Hunn will have to endure the entire application process to become the permanent assistant dean.

"I've been the Acting Assistant since July 18," Hunn said. "I was already in the office as a graduate student working with the Diversion program.

"In the fall they will be starting the actual search," she said. "I'm putting my name in the pool with everyone else."

Dean of Students Melissa Vito explained that "'interim' basically means that you have a job to go back to, and 'acting' means you don't. But I know that on campus the titles get used interchangeably."

Both Thompson and Hunn are involved in a restructuring of the Dean of Students office, Vito said. Vito was acting dean of students from August 1993 through May 1994, and then became the permanent dean.

The new structure also includes two associate deans (Thompson and Alexis Hernandez), and the assistant dean position. The assistant dean reports to Hernandez, who also deals with code of conduct issues, student publications and commencement. "I deal with student crises, like the fire at Coronado (yesterday)," Thompson said. "My job is to make sure that we're doing all that we need to be doing for the students."

The Dean of Students office is also conducting national searches to fill the Student Union director and Student Programs director positions. Mike Low is the interim Student Union director (and former assistant director), and Daniel Maxwell has moved from the Greek Life office to temporarily head up the student program area.

"We have four searches in the student life area for higher level positions right now," Vito said. "For me it's exciting because we're bringing in people, being able to build a staff.

"I don't think it's unusual to have that many searches going," she said.

Even the department in charge of hiring other employees has an interim director. William B. Barrett is now serving as the interim director of the Office of Appointed Personnel, and will continue in his role as vice dean of the College of Business and Public Administration.

That office is also being reorganized, said Nancy Walker, interim operations manager for the Office of Appointed Personnel. She began July 1..

Classified staff is structured separately from the area that deals with administration, faculty and professors. Both sections report to different UA senior vice presidents.

"We've started a 'design team' to decide if these two units should be separated or joined together," said Walker. She said the reorganization began on Aug. 1, and is expected to be completed next year. Read Next Article