Colorado Mesa University Director of Student Life Shane O’Neill left his position Aug. 19 after being hired by the city of Grand Junction to be a business analyst in their finance department.

“The opportunity came to me and you know, for me personally, my background is all in business administration,” O’Neill said. “It was quite a thought process I had to go through in terms of being able to accept it and agree to it.”

O’Neill’s final weekend consisted of the Org Leadership Training on Friday and his official last day was Sunday, during which time he did a training session for the freshmen and assisted people as they moved into their dorms.

Following the Leadership Training, Student Life staff threw a surprise farewell party for O’Neill in The Point.

According to O’Neill, Vice President for Student Services John Marshal will be in contact with the current staff of Student Life in order to make sure the transition goes smoothly as the 2018-2019 academic year kicks off under new Student Life direction.

O’Neill said he knew about the job possibility for a few months and accepted the position three weeks ago. He started working at CMU in 2016 and is an alumni of the university. He stated he will still play a part at the school, even if he no longer works there.

“It’ll be a great opportunity, but you know, hopefully I’ll be more engaged with campus, too, still be able to come around, hopefully do some advisory stuff,” O’Neill said. He also expressed interest in working with the alumni situation a little bit.

As the new school year starts, O’Neill’s position at CMU will be temporarily taken by Nate and Jamie Robertson.