Proctorship and StuLis Under COVID

The application process for rising uppers and seniors to apply for Student Listener and proctor positions within their dorm opened last week. However, the pandemic has affected both the responsibilities and application process for these student leadership roles.

Dow House Student Listener and senior Albert Chu elaborated on the challenges to a Student Listener’s role during COVID. “The student listener role in general, at least pre-COVID, was more of an open-door kind of thing where you make yourself like really comfortable with everybody in the dorm, and you're able to talk easily with everybody, and everybody knows that they can come to you for help or just to vent or talk or anything like that. But with everything moved online, it’s a lot harder to sort of create that dynamic.”

Webster proctor, Student Listener and senior James Keeling also mentioned the added responsibilities of Student Listeners due to COVID. “It's made it more difficult to reach out, but all the more necessary. Because you have preps, who I haven't had the opportunity to interact all that much with, who have had a completely new Exeter experience, especially over winter term with them not being on campus. As a student listener, it's sort of the job to get in touch with them and make sure they're okay and doing well, because they're not having a normal lifestyle experience by any means.”

In addition, some uppers believed the role of a proctor has changed due to COVID restrictions affecting many areas of dorm life. “I think there’s a sense of needing to understand that proctorship this year is unlike what it usually is and that we understand that if we would like to apply for next year,” upper Fawaz Omidiya said.

Proctors faced struggles getting to know their dorm community during the pandemic. “It's been pretty hard, mostly because of the difficulties with visiting other students rooms,” senior and Cilley proctor Will Peeler said. “Usually we go to every single room on the first day to introduce ourselves to new kids and check in on old friends, and since we couldn't do that, it was much harder to meet the new students.”

Front Street proctor and post graduate Claire Wiest agreed. “It's just been kind of disconnected. No matter how hard you try, it's really hard to actually form connections with people not only because of COVID, with everything is on Zoom and just weirdly separate, but also because my dorm is this one that's made of entirely new people. So when you combine that with COVID, it's just kind of a weird environment… sort of everyone has their own little groups, and it's very hard to sort of get to know people once everyone's been divided up like that.”

Proctors have also had trouble planning dorm events to further that dorm bonding. “We organized enough dorm events to get the new kids out of their rooms and meeting people so it all worked out in the end,” Peeler added.

Even regular proctor duties have been affected. “It’s been challenging generally to connect and hold dorm events this year,” senior and Hoyt proctor Ursie Wise said. 

Despite these challenges, proctors felt that this year still provided a rewarding experience and they were proud of the things they’ve accomplished, including building trust with their dorm community. “The greatest moments I’ve had as a proctor this year have been the times when I get students to choose to confide in me. It feels really rewarding to know they trust me enough for that,” Wise said.

Peeler added how Cilley proctors managed to connect students amidst the pandemic. “The best things we've organized are the Cilley Main street dodgeball game, which was absolute chaos and was the first time we got the whole dorm together at once, and a Smash tournament we ran in the basement that gave everyone a chance to see each other. It all comes down to enabling people to interact despite COVID,” Peeler said.

Peabody proctor Tony Cai mentioned a proctor’s experience in pre-COVID years. “In a normal year, the proctor's role is more like, you know, walking around the door and getting to know the new students, perhaps, you know, hanging out in other people's rooms, just being there for the students.”

Keeling spoke to a proctor’s change in role due to COVID. “Our role became more of finding activities to do together, so organizing stuff like milk and cookies in the dorm, zoom meetings, even though not many people showed up. We were trying to replicate the same stuff, game nights, trivia, stuff with other dorms—the whole point was just to keep our community together as best we could,” Keeling said. 

Rising uppers applying for proctorship positions are already making plans to build back dorm bonding, even with the potential COVID restrictions in place next year. Upper Gretl Baghdadi said, “I want to make more inter-dorm connections so that people know that they have multiple resources that they can reach out to, and know that they're always supported and that there are people to listen, so they don't suffer in silence.”

For some, these plans involve taking care of the dorm. “If I get proctor, I want to bring back a sense of dorm community and would really like to show our gratification to the custodial staff because they worked extremely hard this year, and it would also teach others to not treat the dorm like an expendable place because others clean it for us,” Omidiya said.

For others, it involves connecting and dorm bonding. “I think that connecting people socially during the pandemic has been challenging, so I would hope to find ways for people to meet up and get to know one another while being able to follow safety precautions,” upper Kira Ferdyn said. 

Proctors play a critical role in making sure the dorm functions properly and that students within the community receive the proper support they need. Peeler reflected on the various proctors he’s had in the past and the valuable role they played in his life. “In my prep year, I struggled with a lot of family drama on top of the Exeter transition, and the only reason I made it through was because of my proctors Billy O'Handley and Cody Nunn. They introduced the rest of the dorm to me, stormed my room when I felt down, and generally made me feel loved,” Peeler said.

Upper and day student Alana Reale also touched upon the role of a day student proctor. “For day student proctors specifically, I think it's really important that they're involved both with their day student peers and their boarder peers, because it's really easy as a day student to feel disconnected from borders and like the rest of the Exeter community,” Reale said. “A good proctor should be able to work with faculty and other borders to make sure that day students are included in activities, and anything else that a boarder might be able to do.”

Upper and day student Izzy Reyes spoke to the importance of communication, between boarder and day proctors. “Oftentimes we're left out of dorm activities… [and] because we're not allowed in the dorms, there's literally like nowhere to go,” Reyes said. “It kind of like sucks like it feels like there's no real community on campus, it very much feels like we're just going to like a day school because there's like no interaction, pretty much. It's getting better now that we're back but especially in the fall and winter terms, it was really bad.”

Reyes also emphasized increased communication between day proctors and day students. “The day student proctor's now… don't really talk to us about what's going on.”

Although proctorship holds varying duties for different students, Wise believed all proctors should serve as a support system for their dorm community. “It means being someone that people can rely on. That’s so incredibly important, especially at a time like this,” Wise said. 

Upper Liza McMahan agreed. “I think now, more than ever, proctors and just students in leadership positions need to be aware and check in on other students, I feel like the leadership is almost doubled with everything that's happening, especially current events, [with] a lot of national tragedies happening at this moment. There's a lot of stress going on, and especially integrating back into the Exeter system for spring term, and scheduling.”

“A lot of students forget the rigor that the normal Exeter schedule brings, and coming back to spring, with this new scheduling, a lot of students, specifically lowerclassmen, were thrown off guard,” Liza added. “We're not even halfway through the term. The pandemic is still happening, the thought of getting COVID and spreading it to people, that stress and that scare is still there. And it's not going away. Hopefully, we'll all get vaccinated soon, but it's definitely amplified the need for leaders and somebody to guide people in these stressful times now more than ever.”