Who are “Dorm Faculty” at Exeter?

By NICK BAKER, CARLY CANSECO, ALEXA MOREL, KEVIN THANT, and HANNA WEI

Acting as “parents” of a community, dorm faculty are integral and valued members of Phillips Exeter Academy. They ensure safety, respect, and support for students living on campus. Full-time faculty employment at Exeter is contingent on fulfilling 10 years of on-campus residence. The process for a dorm faculty member’s placement in dorms is complex and idiosyncratic — matching the needs of the Academy to those of the faculty.

Faculty backgrounds in a dorm are usually eclectic, ranging in Exeter tenure, academic discipline, and family size. However, for most, the duration of their stay with students is similar. “Faculty need to live in dormitories for the first 10 years of their time at Exeter,” Wheelwright dorm faculty and Instructor in History Sally Komarek said. “After that, they can choose to move either off campus to a house that they’ve purchased or are renting, or they could move into what’s called post-dorm housing, which is academy-owned housing, for a limited time. You can stay in dormitory housing for up to fifteen years and then choose to live in academy housing or purchase your own house. If you stay longer, you get more time in Academy-owned housing after the dormitory.” 

Instructor in Spanish Ellen Glassner said, “If you stay over ten years, every extra year is two years in a faculty house.”

However, some faculty members cannot immediately live in a dorm during their first year. Many faculty members are first affiliated with a dorm and live in a school-provided apartment off campus for their first year. 

“For example, if you’re gonna be a dorm head, then they give you housing in the dorms immediately,” explained Instructor in English David Rhee. “But they have different rounds depending on what’s available.” These rounds are when faculty members can “apply” towards living in a dorm.

Despite the importance of dorm sentiment and culture for many of Exeter, faculty do not necessarily get to decide what dorm they can be in. “When given an apartment in a dorm, you automatically become the dorm faculty for it,” Rhee said.  

After their first year, the faculty’s dorm residency usually begins. When faculty are placed in dorms, “housing availability, length of service, family size and other space or accessibility needs, the composition of the dorm team, and whether they will serve as a dorm head” are all criteria for location, according to Dean of Faculty Eimer Page.

Wheelwright dorm faculty and Instructor in Health Courtney Shaw described her application to become a dorm faculty, “We just have to fill out a form that states our needs, as far as family size, if we have any allergies, and if we are willing to be dorm head.”

Exeter’s consideration of faculty needs is paramount in ensuring that during their time in the dorm, they don’t have to live in a space that doesn’t suit their spacing and family needs. Most faculty members spend time in a dorm, which is dynamic and can be subject to change based on living conditions and needs. 

Glassner described her numerous dorm switches, starting her journey in Wentworth, then moving on to Webster, Abbott, Ewald, a faculty house, and now Cilley, respectively.

“We had to be clearer about why we needed a bigger place. But we needed to move because it wasn’t a suitable apartment after having another child,” Glassner said about her move from Webster to Abbott. 

While the dorm faculty system is important to students, it also benefits teachers, allowing them to connect with the community more profoundly.

“It’s convenient to live in the dormitory when you’re working with students to be able to check in with an advisee on a non-duty night to meet your advisees in the common spaces,” Komarek said. “From a working perspective, there are many ways that the connections with students are a little bit more direct when you’re living on campus. or even if it’s something small.”

Instructor in Art Adam Hosmer, a member of the Langdell’s dorm faculty, concurred: “I think living in the same dorm as advisees allows you get a better sense of who they are. You hang out with them more, you talk with them more — two weeks ago, I had all my advisees over to my apartment for dinner.”

Dunbar dorm head Samantha Fahey described a contrasting perspective, highlighting a benefit of living off-campus: “Off-campus housing allows you to get that separation from the school and the students. Not in a bad way, but it allows you to, even when you’re not on duty, really not be on duty. When you’re in the dorm, you still feel responsible to the students there.”

“Off-campus housing makes a work-life balance a little bit easier,” Alia Haskins, an OMA intern and member of Dunbar’s dorm faculty, added. “You do not live where you work, so detaching from PEA life is slightly easier. It also offers more privacy because you do not see colleagues and students during your free time.”

Fahey, who lives in the dorm with her family, noted, “The housing system can be stressful, especially when you have a family involved, because it’s kind of your family’s livelihood.”

“As resident faculty, we have way more responsibilities, not just doing duty once a night, we meet with our advisees once a week, and sometimes we have weekend duties, so that’s twice a week,” Shaw explained. “We also have other commitments, such as holding spaces for students in the dorm, walking through the dorm during the day, and also being present for events such as Wheel Tea. It’s part of our contract.”

Komarek explained the difference between being a dorm faculty or living in faculty housing, “I think from a working perspective, there are a lot of ways that the connections with students are able to be more direct when you’re living on campus. This would never happen to me, but if you forget a book or a computer at home, just like for boarders versus day students, it’s easy to run home and grab it.”

Whether living on or off campus, all full-time faculty must be affiliated with a dorm and fulfill at least 10 years of dorm residency.

Staff members can also elect to be dorm affiliates. “I decided to be a dorm affiliate because I didn’t know any students. To be successful in any community, you must know people in that community,” said Safety Operations Manager and Langdell dorm affiliate Andrew Pixley.

Director of Choirs and Instructor in Music Kristofer Johnson described an upside of dorm affiliation: “We music faculty have so much evening duty to the Music Department that we should be affiliated with dorms that have a larger dorm faculty team because we have to be out so often. It doesn’t leave us with a lot of flexibility.”

However complicated, the dorm faculty housing system is essential to the Exeter community. Dorm faculty guide students through their most formative years and many depend on this support system. At the end of the day, Exeter wouldn’t be the same without its devoted dorm teams.