After serving Augustana for almost 40 years, Ken Brill, the associate dean and director of the Office of Student Life and Leadership (OSL), will be retiring in late June of this year.
Brill first started working at Augustana in July of 1985 as a residence hall director for what is now Evald Hall. As Augustana changed its management structure, a position became available for a student activities department office director, and he was hired for that in the fall of 1986.
But Brill was involved with the college even before that. Initially, he attended Augustana as a student and graduated in 1982 with majors in religion and political science.
“I was very involved on campus. I was thinking about becoming a minister or lawyer,” Brill said. “Ultimately, one of my advisors talked to me and said, ‘I think that you enjoy being involved and engaged in the college or university community. You should maybe think of that as a career.’”
Brill attended the University of Iowa and graduated with a master of arts in student development in postsecondary education. While Brill was studying as a graduate student, Augustana reached out with an inquiry about the residence hall position. Soon after, Brill accepted the job and returned to Augustana.
Over the years, Brill has contributed to many notable changes to Augustana’s student life, including the developmental approach to residential life. This approach is centered around the student’s growing independence, from living in a dorm to living in TLAs and finally transitioning into off-campus housing.
He is also involved in the National Association for Campus Activities as a member of the foundation board and was a chair of the board of directors for multiple years.
Junior Isabella Olalde, the marketing director for the OSL, said that Brill has contributed to the wide range of capabilities of the OSL.
“He’s one of the biggest reasons why we’ve gotten a lot of the funds that we get, and we have the capability to have a Student Life Programming Board (SLPB) and a Multicultural Programming Board (MPB),” Olalde said. “He’ll accredit a lot of that to students, but in all honesty, without his connection to the faculty and his relationships that he builds, we wouldn’t be able to have anything that we do.”
Many members of the OSL share the sentiment that Brill was an enjoyable person to work with. Sophomore Kristin Rundle, who serves on the marketing team as the social media co-chair, said that many of the members of the OSL feel very close to him.
“He feels like one of us,” Rundle said. “Obviously, he’s our boss, and we look up to him, but he’s very connected with the students.”
Rundle’s favorite part about working with Brill was that he would get involved in the social media aspect, sometimes appearing in the OSL’s TikTok.
Junior Alvin Theccanat, co-director of MPB, said that Brill is a very kind person, even to people he hasn’t met before.
“Even if he doesn’t know the person, he’ll always say hi,” Theccanat said. “Especially to freshmen when we’re doing Welcome Week, he’ll just always say hi with a smiling face.”
Brill said the position isn’t an 8 to 4:30 job. Rather, it requires the person to be available in the evening after students’ classes have ended.
“Augustana is really driven by relationships, so I hope the person is very relationship-oriented,” Brill said. “I hope the person understands that this position kind of requires you to be available 24/7.”
Olalde said that the new OSL director also needs to maintain the comfortable atmosphere of the OSL.
“We have created this atmosphere of fun and friendship while getting our jobs done,” Olalde said. “I hope the new OSL director is able to keep fostering the environment that we already have.”
According to Dean Wes Brooks, vice president and dean of student life, the search for a new OSL director is a national search, and the college has listed Brill’s position on the Augustana website’s Human Resource page.
Brooks said the college hopes to welcome a replacement by July, and the college is now accepting applications.
