Ian Lecki achieved several things in his three years at Newman, all of which prepared him well for his new role as director of residence life, he says.
As a student, Lecki was a member of the men’s baseball team, served as president of the Student Government Association (SGA), worked as a residence assistant (RA) and even led his own community-building initiatives around campus.
Lecki transferred to Newman in 2020, and then graduated in 2022 with his undergraduate degree in business marketing. In 2023, he earned his Master of Business Administration with concentrations in leadership and health care administration.
The opportunity to serve as director of residence life means a great deal to Lecki. He feels that his time as a Newman student helped prepare him to make a significant impact on students’ lives, particularly those who live in the residence halls.
“I see this opportunity as a platform to implement my vision for creating a sense of community and belonging within the residence halls. I’m excited to work closely with the RAs, student affairs and students to enhance the quality of campus living while promoting personal growth and development,” said Lecki.
Lecki has a few big goals he wants to achieve in this position. One is to increase the occupancy of the residence halls from 88% (a number Lecki is “super proud of”) to reach their fullest capacity.
“Over the last couple of years, I feel that the residence life staff have done a good job of implementing events and making students’ lives on campus a lot of fun. So when students are juniors and seniors and have the option to live off campus, they make the decision to stay on campus, which helps keep the dorms full,” said Lecki.
Another goal is to update the decade-long old contracts and systems within residence life and to make it easier for students to promote communication and relationship-building.
Applying leadership skills from Newman, to Newman
Lecki believes his student leadership opportunities at Newman will enhance his ability to serve students as director of residence life.
Some of the best advice Lecki received as SGA president, he said, was to “look for the quiet voices in the back of the room because they are often the ones with the good ideas.”
As a student, Lecki also led a few community-building initiatives. One included researching and getting the funding to replace the washers and dryers inside Fugate and Carrocci Halls. His most recent project was installing cameras around campus to increase safety measures across the university.
“Hearing students’ concerns and knowing that there was room for improvement helped me get the ball rolling on increasing campus security. With the help of Icer Vaughn, Sister Fran Schumer (ASC), Dr. Andi Giesen, student affairs, residence life, former director of campus security Mo Floyd and SGA we were able to accomplish this task,” said Lecki.
Out of all these initiatives, Lecki’s favorite was during his first year as an RA, when he allowed freshmen to plan residence hall events the entire month of November. There was so much attention drawn to Carrocci due to the events that Lecki was recognized in a “Tell Me Something Good” article.
Lecki believes that his past of being an RA and being close in age with the residents will help him in this role.
“I have a very good understanding of what students need now to be successful. I hope now the residents feel comfortable coming to me, sharing what is or is not working and helping me create or update a current plan to help them be successful again,” said Lecki.
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