New students in Hearsey House, Pemberton Cottage and Newman House will not be counting their prefects and proctors among their dorm mates.
Due to unexpectedly high enrollment rates, Juniors in these dorms now have remote proctors or prefects.
Walter Chacon ’13, Tyler Dillard ’12, Mark Meyer ’13, Jay Supapannachart ’12 and Ray Thamthieng ’12 live in other dorms of the same cluster but maintain the same responsibilities as their live-in counterparts.
Clyfe Beckwith, former Cluster Dean of Flagstaff and Instructor in Physics, said, “[Having remote prefects and proctors] wasn’t by design. This year was an anomaly. We needed the beds because of the enrollment.”
Last spring, Hearsey House was chosen to be a Junior girls dorm, but due to lack of rooms for live-in prefects, the decision was made to give the dorm a remote prefect. The same scenario played out in Newman House and Pemberton Cottage.
The five remote proctors and prefects received emails from their respective cluster deans over the summer asking if they would be interested in serving as remote prefects or proctors.
Matthew Hession, Cluster Dean of Flagstaff and Instructor in History, and Frank Tipton, Cluster Dean of West Quad North and Instructor in History, selected the five after asking faculty members living in their clusters for suggestions of students for the positions.
Though Thamthieng lives in Paul Revere, she spends Sunday nights in Hearsey House, checking on her prefectees and bringing snacks to share.
“Not living in the dorm definitely takes time out from when I actually get to see them,” she said.
“But I think after the first few weeks, after they get into a routine, there won’t be a huge difference between whether [I am] living there or not.”
Chacon, a resident of Pease House, spends Wednesday nights in Pemberton Cottage. His roommate, Meyer, is on prefect duty Thursday nights.
Once or twice a week, Supapannachart and Dillard, remote co-proctors of Newman House, cross Salem Street from Foxcroft and Bartlet to spend time with the five Lowers in Newman House.
Supapannachart said, “When we go [to Newman], we sit in the common room, do homework and watch TV. The boys come out and talk to us. They’re cool kids, and they’re fun to be around. [I] couldn’t have asked for a better five.”
“We constantly encourage them to ask up for help, and they do actually, whether it is about homework or just to talk. I think we’re pretty close already, and they’re comfortable with us,” he continued.
Supapannachart said that he enjoys the company of the Lowers as a welcome break since he thought he might be “either stuck in [his] room or in the library during Senior fall.”
Pemberton had a day of dorm bonding, during which Chacon and Meyer played wiffle ball with the Juniors and made a trip to Orange Leaf, a local frozen yogurt chain.
Chacon said, “[Mark’s and my] goal is to build a strong foundation for [the Juniors], so we try to help them out with anything they need. If they want any advice about classes or anything, we’re there.”
Chacon said that although he and Meyer are only at Pemberton for two hours at a time, they each try to go around the dorm twice when they are there, visiting everyone’s room and seeing how each of their prefectees are doing.
Like Chacon and Meyer, Thamthieng tries to stop by Hearsey House to check on each of the girls as frequently as possible.
She said, “They all have my number, so they can call me whenever they want. I also see a lot of them around school.”
Because they are a part of two separate dorms, the remote prefects and proctors have to balance their own dorm affairs with their perfecting and proctoring duties.
Newman House has dorm meetings on Mondays and Wednesdays so as to not conflict with Supapannachart and Dillard’s own dorm meetings on Thursdays and Sundays.
Chacon said, “[Mark and I] were willing to be on duty twice a week because we thought once a week each wasn’t very much, but Mr. Faulk, [House Counselor in Pemberton Cottage and Instructor in Chemistry] didn’t want to have Mr. Hurley [House Counselor in Pease House and Instructor in Mathematics] to worry about us because we return a little bit past final sign-in every night.”
In Hearsey and Pemberton, two or three complementary house counselors will supplement the time that the remote prefects spend in the dorm.
