Recently hired administrators added to the Pugh Center

The Pugh Center, located in the Student Union, serves as a multicultural hub on Colby’s campus. This space is home to 16 student organizations that function to provide a safe space for students of marginalized communities. 

These clubs put on various cultural and religiously affiliated events throughout the year that are open to the general Colby community and often encourage people unaffiliated with the Pugh Center to attend. 

This year, the Pugh Center hired two new administrators: Kimberly (Kim) Walton-Trajkovski and Kyle Arthenayake. Walton-Trajkovski joined the Pugh team as the Associate Dean and Director of the Pugh Center after a long career at Purdue University, and Arthenayake joined as the new Pugh Program Director.

“There are three prongs to what we do here,” Walton-Trajkovski explained. “One is to basically maintain the physical space of the Pugh. We want to make sure that it’s a place where students feel comfortable, where they can relax and just be themselves. Another big piece for me, and a piece that I love, is the student development and engagement piece. My primary role is to provide resources and support to the students who are affiliated with the Pugh. And then the third part of my role here is campus engagement, which means multicultural based programming or programming around any social justice issues or any issues students feel are valuable and need to be discussed on a campus wide basis.”

Arthenayake works closely with Walton-Trajkovski . 

“My job description is to support what Kim is doing in the Pugh Center, but also work with campus partners to develop outward facing programs for the campus community as well as supporting the various student clubs and organizations within the Pugh Center, whether that be helping out financially, getting program supplies, getting spaces reserved, or connecting clubs with the people they need to be connected to,” Arthenayake said.

The clubs within the Pugh Center are encouraged to collaborate with each other for both cultural and community engagement events. Walton-Trajkovski and Arthenayake are encouraged by the cross-club collaboration but expressed room for improvement. 

“While the collaboration is great between groups, I’d like to see more of it,”  Walton-Trajkovski said. “As far as support though, my feeling is that when there is an event by a group, there’s a lot of support from the other groups. So even if they don’t have a direct collaboration with that particular group, I like that the groups support each other’s initiatives.”

Arthenayake expressed similar sentiments and provides input on why the amount of collaboration between clubs has experienced trouble rising. 

“I think a lot of people want to collaborate,” he said. “They want to do so much collaboration and I believe that just being at Colby, the rigors of academics are a limit in some ways, and I think so many of our students are like, banging on the door ready to have this like, amazing collaboration, and something I love about Kim’s and my job is that we are there to unlock that door in certain ways.”

Walton-Trajkovski and Arthenayake have received a lot of support in Pugh programming from Campus Life and other campus organizations. However, within the larger Colby community, they have perceived some attitudes towards the Pugh Center that need to be addressed. 

“What I want people to see is what I see,” Walton-Trajkovski explained. “I see amazing students who work hard every single day. And sometimes, that’s only recognized within the confines of the Pugh center, so I want the Colby campus at large to recognize that these are Colby students. They are talented, they are amazing, they bring a lot of creativity, they bring a lot of life to Colby in general. I want people to understand and recognize that. I want the rest of the campus who might not be familiar with the Pugh Center, who may have a negative connotation of ‘Pugh students’  ... to recognize again that these are Colby students and they have a lot to offer.”

Walton-Trajkovski and Arthenayake hope to continue their great work to support the clubs and organizations within the Pugh Center, to facilitate more intra-Pugh collaboration, and to foster the inclusion of the Pugh Center within the rest of the College’s culture. 

~ Mahika Gupta `23