Haley Weaver, New Aldersgate RD
We remember some events from our childhood more vividly than others. For Haley Weaver, memories of her time in Wilmore, Kentucky when she was five years old stick out in particular.
“I have all of these really vivid memories of living here,” said Weaver. “Do you have these gaps in your childhood, like memories? I remember so much of living here, and I think some of that is just because of the weather—we have seasons here. All of my memories are formed around the seasons.”
Weaver, from West Palm Beach, Florida, lived in Wilmore for a year while her parents attended Asbury Theological Seminary. As the daughter of church planters, Weaver was always very involved in the church. Her love for ministry would eventually lead her back to the small town of Wilmore that she remembered so well, where she would study at Asbury Theological Seminary like her parents.
Before attending seminary, Weaver received a bachelor’s in Ministry Leadership from Palm Beach Atlantic University in her hometown. During a gap year, she began to consider returning to school to work towards her masters degree when she connected with Greg Hasseloff, her mother’s classmate.
“Greg was like, ‘Why don’t you come up and do a grad assistantship and start your master’s?’ and I really believe God opened all of these really strange doors,” said Weaver.
While studying for her master’s, Weaver worked at Asbury University as a grad assistant. This is where she found her passion for working with college students in spiritual and residence life.
During her three-year grad assistantship, Weaver worked with upperclassmen women living in the Kenyon House.
“We did some intentional Christian discipleship in the house,” said Weaver. “It was really cool to see that every year what we did in the house grew—we tried to increase it just a little bit every year. The first year we didn’t do a ton because they didn’t sign up necessarily knowing that I was coming, but the second year I added another layer. By the third year I was here, I had women who were signing up intentionally to participate in that, which was really, really meaningful.”
Weaver also worked with the staff and students of Aldersgate during her assistantship. While her work in the Kenyon House was mostly focused on spiritual life, she gained experience in residence life through work with Aldersgate.
“I actually sat in on and participated in all of the meetings and did everything with the Aldersgate resident assistant staff,” said Weaver. “I got a real picture of what Aldersgate is and the students who live there. I got a real connection to the Aldersgate community.”
When Weaver graduated from seminary with a Master’s of Divinity in 2018, the RD position at Aldersgate was vacant. Weaver and her husband, Brandon, were newlyweds at the time and did not feel ready for the position. Weaver accepted a job at the seminary in the church planting office, where she worked for a year.
“It was a great year but it was during that time that I really realized how much I missed the relational component of a job on a college campus,” said Weaver.
The Aldersgate resident director position reopened, and now the timing was right.
“When the position opened after Jessica decided to leave, I really quickly put my name in the hat,” said Weaver. “Brandon was like ‘We gotta do that,’ when he learned that the position was open, and we’ve both had a real excitement about it and just felt that the timing was really good.”
Weaver was familiar with the job and campus and was excited about the opportunity.
“It’s a gift to get to come to a job sort of knowing what you’re getting into,” said Weaver. “You don’t get that opportunity very often.”
Weaver is planning for her future in this position. Along with working with the students of Aldersgate, the RD is taking on a brand new role as the Assistant Chaplain of Worship. In this position Weaver will oversee worship arts interns and bands, which will create more consistency with chapel bands.
Also, with her RA staff, Weaver intends to utilize a holiday for an all campus event hosted by Aldersgate, similar to Kresge Kandyland and Johnson Christmas.
“We feel strongly about having an all campus event that is hosted by Aldersgate,” said Weaver. “We’re also considering doing a progressive dinner within Aldersgate to connect all of the apartments.”
Overall, Weaver is excited to connect with the students on campus and build relationships.
“I’m excited to rebuild a student base and have relationships with students again,” she said. “It’s been awesome to have everyone back on campus and in an area where I can just walk around and see them. I was really missing the intentional relationship building and living in a relational space, so I’m excited for that.”
New SASF officers
The Salvation Army Student Center is a special place within both Asbury University and the Salvation Army. This fact was obvious when 92-year-old Betty Doughtery walked into the doors of the center. Graduating from Asbury in 1949, Doughtery was one of eight Salvationists who attended the university at the time. She was traveling down Interstate 75 and said she had to visit this special place.
Not only is the SASF Center a special place, but it is also led by special people. Every few years officers in the Salvation Army receive a new assignment, and this year sees new officers running the SASF center. The Asbury assignment is always unclear as it is not part of a specific division or territory within the army, but two officers were led here by God this year.
“No one ever thinks about getting assigned here because it’s not in your territory, except for maybe when the Lord lays it on your heart,” said Major Paul Cain, a new director at the Moulton Memorial Student Center.
Every year officers in the Salvation Army have a type of employee review where they fill out a document that asks what appointments they are interested in, which include positions like pastoring and administrative roles.
“Out of the clear blue, my wife says to me, ‘What do you think about Asbury?’ and we were looking for an assignment. And I was like, ‘Yeah, that would be great,’ so we put it down to see what happened,” said Cain. He and his wife had already turned in their assignment sheet, but they called the personnel department to make the change. When they did, a personnel officer told them that headquarters had just called a day earlier asking for suggestions for Asbury assignment. The couple took it to be a sign from God.
Two months later, the Cains were assigned to the director position.
This role comes after time spent in the Eastern Territory serving in various roles. The Cains have been officers in the Salvation Army for 35 years, and have primarily been involved in pastoring and administrative positions. Most recently the Cains were the state commanders for Delaware.
The Cains are familiar with working with students. They have had several appointments that involved student ministry, including both campus and camp ministry.
“We’ve always enjoyed campus ministry,” said Cain. “Every appointment we’ve had we’ve always had some relationship with some local campus, not always Christian schools but we’ve always worked with on campus ministries.”
Experienced in campus ministry, the Cains are prepared to direct the Center. One change to the center this year is the addition of a new service programming called the Jesus Theater. Students will perform a choreodrama that tells the Bible story through movement and music.
The Cains want the Center to remain a place where all are welcome
“One of the misconceptions about this place is that it’s just for a select group of students when in fact it’s for everybody, it’s a gift to the community by the Salvation Army,” said Cain.
The doors of the Center are always open and everyone is encouraged to use the space.
New faces at the HICCUP
Located in the center of the Student Center, the HICCUP is one of the most popular locations on campus. No matter the time of day, you can always find students sitting at the bar working on homework while sipping lattes or lounging on couches with milkshakes in hand while they chat with friends.
The HICCUP is a familiar place for every Asbury student, but this year there will be some unfamiliar faces behind the counter. Out of the eighteen people on staff, only four of them are returners. This loss of staff is due to a large number of staff members graduating last semester and current students studying abroad in Paris this semester.
Along with the young staff, there have been managerial changes—all three of the managers this year are returning staff members who are new to the position. Also, the HICCUP will now be overseen by the director of conference services, while in the past the RD of Aldersgate was the HICCUP supervisor.
Although the people working at the HICCUP may be unfamiliar, students can still expect the same quality drinks. Training procedures were adapted to accommodate the young staff.
“I think our training is one hundred percent different this year,” said employee relations manager Becca King. “We had so much turnover from last year and I’m hoping that the campus gives us grace for these first few weeks because they are still learning, and we’ve equipped them as best we could. We did more preparation than we have in the past.”
Typically, HICCUP training lasted two days and would take place during Welcome Week. This year, new workers shadowed experienced staff at the end of last semester along with attending training sessions and shifts during Welcome Week. This year’s baristas worked more training shifts that were longer in duration.
The HICCUP also gained new equipment, including a new grinder and ice cream fridge. They’re also using beans from a different vendor this year; they switched from Daily Offerings to Quills.
“Quills helps us to be more consistent, which is especially helpful with all of the new staff that are in the learning process,” said King.
There have been a lot of changes but the HICCUP is hoping to continue to be the welcoming hub of campus.
“I think that [the HICCUP] is the heart and soul of campus,” said King. “I think that everyone comes through at one point, and we just get to be a friendly face. In the past the HICCUP had this vibe of like untouchables, whereas this year I feel like we’ve hired such an amazing variety of different people. … The vibe that we want to give out this year is welcoming—just come and talk to us. We want to be friendly, helpful and welcoming.”
New employees and transitions as of July 1, 2019:
Employee Transitions:
Kevin Brown – full-time faculty to President
Bill Hall – full-time staff to full-time faculty – Assistant Professor – Media Communication
Zach Parsons – interim to full-time Head Women’s Softball Coach
Mary Ann Wilder – full-time staff to full-time faculty – Assistant Professor – Music
New Employees:
Kim Brockman – full-time faculty – Assistant Professor – Education
Allison Pannell – full-time staff – Staff Assistant – Education
Haley Weaver – full-time staff – Resident Director for Aldersgate Commons/Assistant Chaplain of Worship
Megan Weaver-Seitz – full-time faculty – Assistant Professor – Media Communication
