Purdue University announced Thursday that it has hired a human resources manager to help manage the university’s human resources department.UMass human resources director David Hickey said the move is the first time a top university has hired someone to manage human resources.
Hickey said he is joining the new position “in the hope of working alongside my colleagues and the many staff and students that make up our human resources team.”UMass has an average of about 10,000 employees in its human resources division.
The department has about 1,500 full-time employees, Hickey told The Associated Press in an email.
Higgs, the human resources coordinator, has a master’s degree in human resources from Purdue.
He has previously worked at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University at Albany.
Hogs first stint at the university came in 2006, when he was hired as human resources executive assistant.
He worked there for a year before becoming the university human resources chief in October 2014.
Higgs told the AP in December that the move to a new position is “long overdue.”