Proctors to be Decided Soon

As spring term reaches its halfway point, many hopeful uppers are receiving news regarding next year’s new proctors. The new proctor selection marks the turning point in the year when current seniors begin to give up their responsibilities to rising ones.

While some dorms have finalized the proctor selection for next year, the bulk of them will be decided later this week. Often times much discussion is needed given the significance of this topic to the well-being of a dorm.

Most dorms have a basic structure that students must complete in order to become a candidate for the proctor position. "Generally speaking, most dorms have some sort of an application and then an interview," Dean Cosgrove said. "They get feedback from all the students. The dorm heads always have a pretty good sense of who the good proctors will be, who the good leaders are. Some of this is a formality."

Next, current proctors and faculty deliberate as a group. While proctor opinion is valuable in this process, ultimately, dorm faculty has the final choice of who will serve as the following year’s proctors.

"Partly, what we look for in ways is a variety," Duncan Holcomb, Dunbar dorm faculty, said. "There is a variety of girls in [Dunbar], and I think in a large dorm like ours its beneficial to have one who’s particularly good with the younger students, and one who’s a leader of events, and one or two that are on more of the sporty side so that there’s a variety of role models for the girls to look at."

Smaller dorms, such as Peabody and Lamont, have been reaching out to underclassmen to apply for proctor in the hopes of increasing competition for the job. "In Peabody, there are five positions, and this year only five uppers applied," lower James Quinn said. "Also, I don’t think that being a senior should be a requirement as long as the other kids in the dorm respect you and you are mature enough to handle the position of proctor as well as the workload of upper year."

As a proctor, one’s primary function is to form a leadership team with the faculty, but simultaneously to keep in touch with students on a personal level that a faculty member may lack. Senior and Langdell proctor Sumun Khetpal describes a proctor as "the liaison between the students and the faculty."

"A proctor’s role is to maintain a position of authority in the dorm, but mostly it’s a position of service in ensuring the safety, security and overall happiness of the dorm, as well as catering to a student’s academic, social and emotional issues," she said.

Another job of a proctor is to welcome new students, helping them adjust to this unfamiliar lifestyle, while upholding a peaceful dorm environment. "I think the function of a proctor is to primarily help the transition of new students in the dorm and also to make the dorm a cohesive whole that gets along," senior and Wentworth proctor Aaron Reuben said. "It’s just supporting students throughout the year and resolving conflicts that faculty shouldn’t have to deal with while serving as a resource for other students."

Proctors aid in fostering a closely-knit dorm, whether through organizing dorm wide bonding events or forming one-on-one relationships. A proctor must act as a good example for the other students on behalf of the dorm.

"You always want to be at home in the dorm because it’s where you live, and the job of the proctor is to act as the older brother or older sister that brings the dorm together," senior and Webster proctor Ja-Way Wang said. "Having a role model or somebody to look up to is a great addition to the dorm."