(Photo by Megan Farrer)
On the fourth floor of Warch, you’ll find the Campus Life Office busily at work, performing various tasks to keep residential life at Lawrence as great as it is. The office’s role at Lawrence is to provide a meaningful living and learning environment on campus. Doing so means providing Lawrentians with opportunities for leadership development and personal growth outside the classroom, and building a strong, interactive community.
So when it comes to coordinating student housing, residence hall affairs, and supporting all student organizations on campus, the Campus Life Office is where it all begins. Needless to say, the Campus Life Office has a team of enthusiastic staff members — each integral to the office’s smooth operation. Among them is Campus Life Office Secretary Charity Rasmussen.
When you walk into the campus life office, Charity’s face is often the first you will see. Happy to answer a question or assist someone in need, Charity’s main responsibilities are focused on student organizations. This includes helping student groups access their LUCC budget or managing their LUCC funds and fundraising money. Additionally, she helps student groups in keeping track of their membership roster and leadership. Charity is also the go-to person for student organizations looking to plan a trip.
Before working at Lawrence, Chairty grew up in Marion, Wisc. After graduating high school, she moved to Appleton to study accounting at the Fox Valley Technical College. From there, she began working in the Fox Valley community and started her career at Lawrence in 2000. For the first five years, Charity worked as an alumni records assistant in Lawrence’s development office until shifting to her current position at the campus life office.
For Charity, a typical day on the job begins with paperwork in the mornings when office is typically quiet. After lunchtime, however, the Campus Life Office experiences a lot of student traffic. Said Charity, “I would say I see at least 10-15 students each afternoon who need help with making deposits, trip planning, getting reimbursed for something or making payroll requests.”
The busier afternoons are part of what makes Charity’s job especially rewarding. “I think what I love most about my job is having that one-on-one interaction with the students,” she shared. “It’s really what I love most — providing students with a service that helps them out. That feels good.”
In her spare time, Charity enjoys camping, traveling and gardening with her family. She and her family are also heavily involved with her church and the Boy Scouts.