CIVICUS director takes on new role after 17 years

By Naomi Grant and Carm Saimbre

For The Diamondback

This post is an updated version of an Aug. 11 article.

Sue Briggs, founding director of the CIVICUS Living and Learning program, has left her position after 17 years and will now serve as the special assistant to the associate dean at the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences.

In an email sent to current students enrolled in CIVICUS, the college’s associate dean, Katherine Russell, explained that Briggs’ new role would involve “strengthening CIVICUS alumni outreach efforts” with the college as well as “creating new career-related initiatives” at the University Career Center.

By accepting the new role, Briggs, who has led the program since it began in the fall of 1999, will forfeit control of the program’s day-to-day operations. Korey Rothman, who taught courses in the School of Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies, will serve as the program’s interim director.

Although Briggs said the new position was “an opportunity” she was offered and accepted, the exact circumstances behind the move remain unclear. Briggs referred questions about the move to Russell.

Briggs’ name has become synonymous with CIVICUS, and for associates past and present, the announcement sparked a wide array of both emotions and action.

“My initial reaction was shock, sadness and confusion,” CIVICUS and University of Maryland alumnus Ian Moritz said. “Sue Briggs is somebody that was pretty much the reason I came to Maryland.”

Some alumni and current students expressed concern over Briggs’ departure by campaigning on social media. Many shared personal anecdotes, wrote letters to campus leaders and signed an online petition, hoping to illustrate what Sue Briggs and their time in Somerset Hall — where the program is located — has meant to them. Select CIVICUS alumni also created a website, directly petitioning the college to hold an open town hall where the recent changes could be discussed.

“The reason that a lot of alumni including myself requested a town hall is because we want to talk about all of our concerns as a group to get more of a unified response from BSOS,” said 2014 university alumna Rachel Cooper, who graduated from CIVICUS in 2012.

Briggs’ departure brings a flurry of sudden changes to the Living and Learning program, according to a post made on the Somerset Hall Facebook page by CIVICUS alumna and Student Coordinator Molly Dana and CIVICUS alumna Tessa Trach. Some of these changes include a shorter fall retreat and making the program’s resources accessible via ELMS.

Most notably, beginning this fall, residents of Somerset Hall will include non-CIVICUS students, according to Dana and Trach. However, this decision was made by the Department of Resident Life and not influenced by Briggs’ departure, she said.

“[Incorporating non-CIVICUS students into Somerset] is a great concern to me and it’s great concern to a lot of alum, and it’s got to be a great concern to people living in the building,” said CIVICUS alumnus Kevin LaCherra. “My concern about this number of non-CIVICUS students living in the building is what that does to the dynamic [as] a whole and what that does to the dynamic of this building.”

In response to vocal support for Briggs and worries about the status of the program and Somerset Hall, Russell is offering CIVICUS alumni a chance to speak individually with her as well as the college’s dean, Gregory Ball, during the first few weeks of the semester, Russell said in another email to alumni.

These meetings will allow the college to get a better sense of alumni concern and will help as they prepare to hold a larger meeting, she said.

“For the time being, one-on-one meetings are fine,” said David Nelson, a CIVICUS alumnus who graduated from the university in 2011. “I think it’s a good step for the college to give folks an opportunity to ask direct questions of college administrators.”

While she will no longer be involved in the day-to-day operations of CIVICUS, Briggs will remain involved in the CIVICUS Alumni Network, which was officially approved by the Alumni Association earlier this year.

Katherine Swanson, SGA president and CIVICUS alumna, saw firsthand the kind of alumni connections Briggs fosters when Briggs helped her earn an internship at the White House.

“[Briggs] said, ‘OK, no problem. We [already] have a CIVICUS alum in the White House,'” Swanson said. “‘I’ll just send him a text, ask him to email you and see if he can run down to the internship office for you and find out if you got it.'”

An email later, Swanson got good news.

“And that’s how I found out that day that I got the internship,” Swanson said. “She set up the whole process for me. And now that guy, who’s a CIVICUS alum, is one of my best friends.”

Russell said she expects Briggs to take this new role and run with it.

“She is tremendous in connecting alumni with students and in creating professional opportunities for students and alumni,” Russell said. She added that Briggs’ new office will be located in Hornbake Library to maximize her ability to work with the Career Center.

The special assistant role is a new one, but this is not the first time Briggs and Russell have worked together. In 2009, when Russell was the associate director of the Honors College, Briggs was the one of the first people she met with to discuss new living and learning programs.

Briggs has already started to transition into the new role, she said. Though Briggs and Rothman have not had a chance to meet in person just yet, they plan to meet “as soon as [they’re] both on campus at the same time,” Briggs said.

Before becoming interim director, Rothman taught — and will continue to teach — classes in the theater, art and performance arts program, she said.

Despite concern from various alumni, Dana and Trach attempted to assuage worries of the program being in trouble.

“Although we recognize change is difficult, the leadership of the program and BSOS are doing our best to ensure the longevity of the program,” Dana and Trach wrote in the Facebook post. She also urged students to remember that new CIVICUS students will be arriving this fall and that they “need to be welcomed and have a positive first experience.”