Search committee formed to find Sparks’ replacement
University officials are busy searching through a pool of candidates to find a replacement for Lindsay Sparks, the director of Transitions and Programming, after Sparks left campus for a job at the University of Miami at Ohio at the end of last semester.
Sparks, who could not be reached for a phone interview, described herself as the “director of fun” in an interview with The Volante last May, and was in charge of planning events and overseeing both the dance and cheer teams.
Kim Grieve, dean of students and vice president of Student Services, said Sparks notified her at the end of December that she would not be returning to USD and would instead be pursuing a career with the University of Miami at Ohio’s athletic department – a career field Grieve said Sparks initially went to college for.
“This job (at USD) allowed her really to have some of that, but not all that she wanted so it’s just a really great opportunity for her,” Grieve said.
Starting last week university officials convened a search committee which will evaluate and interview 15 potential candidates to replace Sparks. Grieve said the job opening was originally posted two weeks ago, but the university had to wait a minimum of two weeks to start the interview process due to South Dakota Board of Regents policy. Most of the job applicants are not from USD.
Grieve said the search committee is comprised of a human resources partner, Student Life staff members, an outside staff member and multiple students.
“In this position we have several more students just because she did work with so many different area, and we wanted to make sure they were represented as well,” she said.
By the end of this week, Grieve said the committee would begin conducting phone interviews. In the following weeks they hope to bring a select few candidates to campus for in-person interviews. In the meantime, some staff members have taken over Sparks’ various roles and a temporary dance coach and cheer coach have been hired.
Kiley Weier, captain of the dance team, said members of the team are starting to better understand the large role Sparks played in the success of their team.
“We’re kind of really realizing how much she actually did because I’m kind of taking charge now and I have to set up everything for the games and all of that good stuff,” Weier said. “I have people emailing me all of the time about what routines we want to do, how many we want to do for the game and where our fundraising money is going and all of that.”
Diego Marquez, a dance team member, said the team is hoping the university will hire a full-time coach with dance experience.
“I feel like it would probably benefit us. Since we are a Division I school we do need someone who is there to tell us ‘Hey, you need to do this,’ like we are at a higher standard now and I think a coach will help us,” he said.
While USD will fill the vacancy, Grieve admitted that it will be difficult to fill the spot of someone who was “a real asset to the university.”
“USD will really miss Lindsay,” she said. “She was really, really a great person for the students and the staff and for the faculty – she worked with everybody. This particular position touches all of the constituents more than some of the others do, and she was highly respected by everybody.
