Saying Farewell to RJ Chittams
Benedetto Maniscalco | January 26, 2023
On Dec. 15, 2022, students at Warren Wilson College (WWC) had just begun winter break when the news broke via email about RJ Chittams’ decision to leave his position as the Director of Residence Life and Associate Dean for Student Life.
Since then, his position has been filled by Sandra Hall, who had previously worked as the Area Coordinator for Residence Life.
“He will be sorely missed,” Hall said. “Myself and the RAs [resident assistants] enjoyed working with him. He was a great guy and was a good leader.”
Hall connected to Chittams’ values and is hoping to maintain some of the positive changes he had made in his time at WWC.
“One of the most important things we shared with one another, as far as dealing with students, is transparency,” Hall said. “We both hold dear to that and want to make sure that we're being as open and honest with the students as possible.”
Hall intends to make sure that Residence Life continues to foster open communication with the students living on campus.
“There's nothing to hide, you know, I'm always gonna make choices that I'm not ashamed of people knowing and I feel like RJ was the same in that,” Hall said. “I try to get all the information I can.”
Gramm Pollack, WWC senior and creative writing major, previously worked under Chittams as an RA and was able to provide some context to Chittams’ reasons for leaving his position.
“I respect him and his choice for leaving because of the fact that Wilson didn't have a very good structure and kind of forced him away from his family,” Pollack said.
Pollack expressed admiration for the amount of energy and work Chittams put into the problems that continued to come up with campus housing.
“I've always been very inspired by RJ,” Pollack said. “I think that's probably the best term to use because he came into the school with varying experience and backgrounds, stuff that I don't think Warren Wilson has seen in a long time, if ever. He put into motion a lot of good things with housing for Wilson.”
Pollack noticed Chittams' efforts in trying to better WWC.
“RJ was very forward about trying to make the community more responsible for itself, in the way of building community that I think a lot of us at WWC strive to do,” Pollack said.
Pollack explained some of the frustrations Chittams had been feeling during his time at WWC.
“He had mentioned briefly that he didn't feel like he was heard a lot in the spaces of the administration,” Pollack said. “There was just a lack of understanding or a misinterpretation of what he meant.”
Pollack found Chittams to be an easy person to talk to, despite the seriousness of most student-administration discussions.
“I could always have a great conversation with him. He would make me laugh constantly, even if it was tense,” Pollack said. “Even if we were talking about the school or the situations that were happening around us. He was always very light-hearted, if not serious in the same regard.”
Chittams will be missed by many students and faculty.
“He could express a lot of opinions that I had about the school that I could not articulate in the same way,” Pollack said. “I think he's definitely been a very big influence on my time at the school.”