It’s been a year of dead-end applications and fruitless interviews. But this spring, Green Residence Hall will be under proper resident management.

Ryan Amberg began work Feb.6. As resident manager of the freshman dorms, Amberg is responsible for the male residents of Green and supervising the three resident assistants.

“It’s a nice place,” said Amberg, who moved into Green last week.

The position had been unfilled since the spring of 2007, when Brian Bollinger, director of Residence Life, realized that Green Hall needed special consideration.

“I knew we had a problem,” Bollinger said. “Green Hall had one manager for 177 residents.”

That kind of manager-to-resident ratio made last year difficult for Residence Life.

Residence Life started the fall of 2007 with Ashley Myers as the resident manager for the Green Hall women, and Bollinger working double duty as the male resident manager in addition to his regular position.

“Brian did a huge part for Green,” Myers said. “He gets 100 percent of the credit.”

However, the search for the new resident manager continued to prove fruitless, and the strain mounted on the Residence Life staff.

In the spring of 2007, Bollinger and the Friends Board of Directors approved the new position: a resident manager solely for the men of Green Hall.

The University received many applications, and a few people were brought to Friends for a final interview, but ultimately, nobody was selected.

“With every person we interviewed, we just didn’t feel that they were right for the position,” Bollinger said. He stressed the importance of the resident manager for the freshmen dorm residents.

“If you have a bad experience with your (resident) manager your freshman year,” said Bollinger, “that’s going to equal four years of bad experience at Friends.”

“I prayed every night,” Myers said about the job search.

Then Bollinger received a phone call from a friend at Southwestern College. Amberg was due to graduate in December and had thrown in his hat for the job.

Bollinger was impressed by his resume. Amberg was an apartment manager at Southwestern and was student body president.

“He had very impressive references,” Bollinger said. “The president of Southwestern College, the vice president — (Amberg) knows how to build bridges, and that’s something we were looking for.”

Amberg began work as resident manager in mid-February. He talked about his impressions of the position after a week on the job.

“Right now, I’m just trying to figure out the Friends way of handling things,” Amberg said. “Every college deals with situations a different way, and I don’t want my experience with Southwestern to affect policies here.”

Amberg and Bollinger have been going door-to-door in Green, meeting with residents and establishing the change in leadership from Bollinger to Amberg.

“Probably the biggest challenge is coming in halfway through the year,” Amberg said. “There’s less time to establish a relationship with the guys.”

It might not take as long as he’d originally planned.

“Everyone here’s been very welcoming,” Amberg said. “They’re just great.”