Larry Gibson Leaves Post
by ARIEL WHITWORTH

Larry Gibson, assistant director of Residential Life and Services/Facilities, resigned over winter break to accept a job at Case Western University. He gave notice of his plans to leave. The College has yet to hire a new assistant director.

Among the duties of the assistant director of Residential Life and Services/Facilities are upkeep of residential and dining halls, keeping in touch with the facilities and operations staff and overseeing research and development projects. The job also includes serving as a go-between for the College and the Oberlin Student Cooperative Association and requires the ability to negotiate difficult situations.
Gibson worked with the Facilities Operations and Safety and Security.
When working with OSCA, Gibson mainly helped with maintenance and the repair of large machinery. He met with certain OSCA officers such as the operations managers once a week, and answered many facilities questions for the co-ops. Gibson also helped negotiate OSCA's rent contract with the College.

Benjy Mason, OSCA's spring 2001 operations manager said, "Larry had OSCA's best interests in mind. He went out of his way to make sure that co-ops got what they needed. He knew the issues well, and was very helpful."

Gibson started working at the College about four years ago. Oberlin originally hired Gibson as an area coordinator but he was promoted to his most recent position two years ago. The assistant director before him also took a job at Case Western University. The College has not hired a replacement. However, parts of Gibson's job have been taken over by George Clark, who also works for Facilities.

The position reports to a management company called FRM, a division of the ARAMARK corporation. Gibson worked under Michael Will, executive director of facilities operations, and Kim LaFond, Director of residential life and services.
Gibson's decision to leave was unexpected. Chloe Maher, OSCA operations manager for 2000, said, "Larry never expressed any plans to ever leave Oberlin. In fact, he often spoke of long term renovation plans he had. He submitted proposals for the partial renovation of several co-ops this summer, and we talked about what years other things might get done."
Gibson never gave alternate reasons why he was leaving. The job at Case Western was an obvious promotion for him.
Oberlin staff and students enjoyed working with Gibson. "We will miss him, he was very good at what he did, and a good colleague," Sandra Hougland, assistant director of Residential Life and Services said.

Oberlin will eventually have to find a replacement for Gibson. The College writes that requirements include, "A masters degree in a student development related field and three to five years of facility management in a residential college." These requirements are forerunners for more specific necessities such as budget and planning skills, computer operating ability and communication skills.

"I would hope that any future director would be just like Larry. That would be great. Larry was reasonable, liked co-ops, had an understanding of how things worked, and respected OSCA's autonomy," Mason said.