Meet Derrick Jones, the residence hall director for Rodgers Hall.
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What do you do? That’s kind of hard to answer. Officially, what I do is I’m a residence hall director in the office of residence life. I work with the RA staff, hall council and I’m the budget administrator for the building. I chair the social justice task force, through the office of residence life. I also advise the Black Student Union. That’s the bare bones of what I do here. I also teach a UNIV 100 class.
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What drove you to this profession? Spending a lot of my undergraduate college career working toward student success and working toward programming and education. I was driven partially by desire, partially by accident.
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What do you like most about your job? Connecting with students and working with students, especially when it comes to providing programming, either on a campus scale or within the hall. Being a part of a student’s school experience and being able to offer any assistance or insight.
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What kind of music do you like? I like just about everything. My favorite kind of music is old school Motown. I’m a big fan of meaningful hip-hop music.
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What is your favorite movie? One of my favorite movies is Glory.
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What is a typical day for you? A typical day is pretty atypical. In any given day, I’ll end up checking a lot of e-mails, and e-mailing people back. I’ll meet with the RA staff to talk about how things are going on their floors. Some days, I’ll go to teach class, and some days I have staff meetings. Rarely I have the occasional student issue or discipline meeting. Everything else is the paper work associated with these things.
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How long have you been with the University? I came here as an undergraduate in 1995. I graduated and got my bachelor’s degree and master’s degree here. This is my second year working full time. I’ve been here eight out of the past 10 years.
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What is your favorite TV show? I like the “The West Wing.” I’m always watching “Meet the Press.” I’ll usually find some time to watch the news for a good amount of time everyday.
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What is your favorite place on campus? My favorite place to go on campus used to be the Union, before they remodeled it. The Union is really good now, but there is something about the character of the old Union. Now, probably Rodgers Hall is my favorite. It all revolves around here.
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Are there any current student issues in Rodgers Hall? I think that we have a pretty good involved, spirited group of residents this year. Things have been going pretty good this year. You’re always going to have a couple of minor issues here and there, but we haven’t had anything that I would call a tremendous issue at this point. We’re going to be celebrating our 50th anniversary this year. Sometime in the spring, we’ll have a big 50th birthday party for the building.
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What are your goals for this year? My goals are basically three fold: to do my best to see excellent things. As far as programs, leadership and experiences, come out of Rodgers Hall, the Social Justice Task Force and the Black Student Union. To see those three things which I’m heavily involved in have successful years, and to do a lot of programming as a good resource for the campus community.
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How is this school year going so far? It’s always busy. Busy, but good.
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What is your view on Hurricane Katrina? I guess to put it as concise as possible, I think it shows that we have a lot of work to do in the country when it comes to our perception of people, our confidence in our ability to handle problems and our true willingness to unite.
