 "Photo: Brad Tollefson")
The College of Human Sciences hosted a reception Friday for Erlene McNeill after she announced she is leaving Texas Tech to follow her husband, former Tech defensive coordinator Ruffin McNeill, as he takes up the position of head football coach at East Carolina University.
Erlene McNeill recently took over the position of director of advising in the College of Human Sciences after the previous director, Ann Bush, retired. She also was a professor in the college.
“She is an incredible woman that would have kept on with tradition,” Bush said. “She is a real professional, and I believe she would have brought the advising office to a whole new level. She has been my right hand for the last 10 years; we will miss her more than you can imagine.”
Erlene McNeill said she is thankful for the opportunity to be the new director even though she wasn’t able to accept it for long.
“I was technically only the director of advising for three weeks, but I am proud of the fact that the dean, Dr. Linda Hoover, had that confidence in me,” she said. “I would really like to thank her for knowing that I could do the job.”
Dolores Salas, another adviser in the College of Human Sciences, said the adjustment the office will go through is a difficult one.
“It’s going to be hard losing her,” she said. “First we lost our director Ann, and now Erlene. I wish her the best in North Carolina.”
Erlene McNeill said during the time she has been at Tech she has worked with coordinating the freshman orientation, has been a part of Mentor Tech and has made it her goal to focus on the students.
“I wanted to make sure that parents could feel at ease sending their kids here and that students were somewhere where they were going to be comfortable,” she said. “That’s what it’s all about for me, the students and helping them.”
After leaving Tech, she will be helping her husband in his new job and will focus on the community around the ECU campus, but won’t look for a teaching or advising position within the university, Erlene McNeill said.
“It’s going to be a full-time job supporting the university and being involved in outreach to the community,” she said. “I will also travel with my husband to games and events he is involved in to support him.”
Erlene McNeill said the transition to North Carolina won’t be an easy one.
“I am going to miss the friendly people of West Texas most,” she said. “When I was getting our house ready to put on the market, I took some things to the Salvation Army and there were people there who I didn’t know but they still smiled at me. You can never meet a stranger in West Texas, everyone is so friendly.”
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