Proctors for 2016-17 Selected

New dorm proctors have been selected for the 2016-2017 school year. A number of students in the class of 2017 have been chosen to represent and serve their respective dorms.

History instructor and Peabody dorm head Erik Wade detailed the proctor selection process in his dorm. The dorm faculty team there invites students, typically uppers and occasionally lowers, to file applications which are then reviewed.

The applicants were interviewed, then the present fac/proc team met to confer and decide on the team for the following year.

Wade emphasized the importance of cohesion and cooperation within the proctor team in selecting candidates. “While individuality merits consideration, the mixture of the team toward effectiveness in the dorm is most crucial to me as a dorm head,” he said.

“The whole upper class is compared to one another and it creates an unsettling mood between students in the dorm. The decisions made can definitely harm relationships.”

In selecting their proctors, Webster looks for certain traits. “We hope that proctors will be friendly and approachable, mature and responsible, and devoted to the well-being of their dormmates.

They need to be willing and able to enforce rules and communicate with faculty. We also look for balance within a proctor team,” history instructor and Webster dorm head Giorgio Secondi said.

Both Wade and Secondi emphasized that students can be leaders in their dorm and serve their community without serving as a proctor. Wade said that some students in his dorm “are better suited to lead by example in the dorm without the title of proctor.”

Secondi expressed a similar sentiment.

“It’s always painful to turn down a candidate, as each applicant brings something unique to the position and is typically genuine about wanting to serve the dorm. It’s important to remember that one can be a great senior and role model even without the title of proctor,” he said.

During McConnell Hall’s proctor selection process, health instructor and dorm head Michelle Soucy highlighted a senior’s ability to lead without the title of “proctor,” focusing on the motives behind one’s decision to apply for the position.

“We also ask our proctors what they would do and how they would feel if they weren’t chosen. This is a very telling question,” she said.

For many students, the goal of becoming a proctor stems from their want to give back to the home that helped them become who they are today. The idea that one could be denied this opportunity is stressful for students and consequently affects their respective dormitories. Upper and proctor of Abbot Hall Franco Santolamazza said, “The time of proctor decisions is definitely a stressful time in dorms.”

Santolamazza continued that the decisions, while possibly the best thing for the dorm overall, could actually be worse for the individuals on the proctor team.

“The whole upper class is compared to one another and it creates an unsettling mood between students in the dorm. The decisions made can definitely harm relationships,” he said.

However stressful the decision process may be for many students, the applicants realize the importance of constructing a cohesive group of proctors to lead the dorm community. Now that they are selected, the proctors have attended two training sessions with Dean of Residential Life AJ Cosgrove in which they learned about their responsibilities as well as ongoing administrative discussions such as the prospective visitations policy.

Santolamazza, while now formally a proctor, was encouraged by his dorm faculty members to learn from the current seniors’ experiences before his responsibilities grow and the opportunity to learn disappears, a chance that he said he has utilized.

“Besides taking over check-in, choosing rooms and attending a few meetings, the new proctors haven’t done too much, however, we’ve been observing the old proctors and asking them for tips on how to enforce certain rules,” he said.