Director of Public Safety Marlene Hall announced Thursday she will step down from her position at Syracuse University.

Hall, who has been with SU’s Public Safety for about four years, accepted a job offer at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte as the school’s new chief of police, she said.

‘It’s really a nice opportunity,’ Hall said, smiling.

Halls and the UNC administrators have been in contact with one another since October 2005, Hall said.

‘These kinds of processes take time,’ Hall said.

Representatives with UNC contacted Hall a few weeks ago to offer her the position, but she said she needed to run the proposal past those closest to her before she made a decision.

‘I think some people would call me a workaholic,’ she said. ‘But in the end, it’s family that matters.’

Hall said she first ran the proposal past her husband and they both decided it would be in her best interest to accept the job. Hall announced her decision to accept the offer at UNC to her office Thursday.

‘It’s all about the timing. I was waiting for the right time to tell (everyone at Public Safety),’ she said.

UNC Charlotte has been without a chief of police for ‘quite a long time,’ Hall said, so she will be leaving SU March 11, 2006. She will begin her new job at UNC March 15.

Since Anthony Callisto, acting deputy director of Public Safety, is still working part-time at the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Department until he has fulfilled his obligations there, a leadership team has been set up led by Callisto, Capt. Drew Buske and Donna Adams, associate director of Public Safety.

‘Folks here at (SU) are wonderful,’ she said. ‘I don’t think I could have asked for a better department.’

Hall said from the very first week she was at SU, she noticed the teamwork that goes on around campus.

‘She’s been a wonderful leader of the Department of Public Safety and a wonderful colleague,’ said Kevin Morrow, director of News Services at SU. ‘We’ve worked together personally on any number of matters over the past four years, and have a working relationship that I value.’

Hall said, looking at Public Safety as a whole, the people have been continuously challenged, like going through the peace officer training, but they’ve handled it very well.

‘We’re going to miss Marlene and everything she’s brought to the department and the university,’ Morrow said.

Published on February 9, 2006 at 12:00 pm