The Judicial Affairs Office has undergone many changes during the last month, but the one that has not happened is the office’s name.

“I think the office is somewhat misnamed, and one of my suggestions is that Eastern should look into renaming the office,” said Keith Kohanzo, the former director of Judicial Affairs for the last 27 years. “To say Judicial Affairs confuses people. We get confused with the student legal service and people think this is a nest of lawyers, which it is not,” he said.

The one major change the Judicial Affairs office has seen is the retirement of Kohanzo and the hiring of Heather Webb as director.

Webb, a graduate of Purdue University, took the task of filling Kohanzo’s position on Sept. 25.

“Coming here was very exciting for me because I knew Keith and knew about the work that he had done here,” Webb said. “He always had great things to say about Eastern and the students, so I felt very good about coming here.”

As for Kohanzo, the time was right to move on after working at Eastern for a total of 35 years.

“You reach point where they were willing to employ me part-time, and I could take advantage of some retirement time,” Kohanzo said. “I had a real enjoyable 27 years, but that is a long time in one position.”

Kohanzo, however, currently does part-time work for the Vice President of Student affairs.

With that, Webb takes on the job of overseeing the office of Judicial Affairs. One of her duties could include, as Kohanzo stated, making the objectives of the office more clear.

“One of the things we do is we advise students concerning the student code of conduct,” Webb said. “Sometimes students choose to participate in behaviors that are in violation of the student code of conduct, and then we would have a conversation about their violation, talk about why their behavior was a violation, and talk with them about their alternatives.”

However, variety plays a major role in deciding punishments for student’s behavior.

“It is not a mathematical formula,” Webb said. “I can’t just take variables and plug them into a formula and have an outcome. Every single student we talk to is going to be different and, because of that, we have different types of conversations with students and the outcomes are different based on the fact of the situation.”

Webb also worked with student conduct while at Purdue University, but when it came time to move on, Eastern and Webb instantly connected.

“When I came here for my interview, some of the things that I saw were a definite commitment to the students,” Webb said. “I saw a lot of things going on at Eastern, and a lot of programs, that had been put in place at Eastern designed to put students first.”

Webb also felt right at home with the Charleston community.

“My husband and I are both from smaller communities and, when we came here, we felt very comfortable. It’s just a very nice, welcoming community. Overall, it has been a positive move,” Webb said.

Although Webb has seemed to adjust nicely to her new position, Webb did not realize how much she enjoyed student affairs until she investigated it for a paper as a graduate student.

“I had to write a paper about a specific area in student affairs,” Webb said. “The professor assigned us to different areas and assigned me to interview someone who dealt with student conduct at Purdue. When we talked, there was something about it that was more appealing to me.”

After the interview, Webb was invited to work as an intern and the rest is history.

“If I had not had that internship as a graduate student, I probably would not have known how much I enjoy judicial affairs,” Webb said.

“I think there is always an element of apprehension when you are getting a new supervisor, but so far I have enjoyed working with her,” said Robyn Paige, a judicial adviser. Paige worked as an intern last year for Kohanzo.

Webb, however, was also a little apprehensive about meeting a whole new staff, but feels like she has adjusted well.

“I really like the other staff members that I work with,” Webb said. “I feel like I have been here a lot longer. When my family and I moved, a lot of people welcomed us to the community and made us feel like we were a part of EIU right away.”

“I feel like she is getting settled in and it seems like she is transitioning very well,” Paige said.