Senior Managers May Have To Work During Senior Week

Just say the word “graduation” in front of seniors and they’ll cringe. Mention Senior Week and positive reactions are sure to surface.

Senior townhouse and apartment managers, however, may be on duty while their classmates get to drink heavily on Pub Night or dance the night away during the semi-formal.

According to Charles Sousa, area coordinator for Residence Life, the townhouse and apartment managers’ contracts requires that they work until the end of the year, including Senior Week.

“This is something that needs to be done and hasn’t been primarily done in the past,” said Sousa, who reminded managers of the requirement early last month.

But Sousa said having senior managers work during this time, May 14-20, is a safety precaution.

“It’s not that we’re trying to bust people,” Sousa said. “We don’t want to find somebody passed out in the street. If that happens we want to get them to the Health Center. It will just put a damper on the rest of the week and then graduation; that’s not the way you want to end [the week].”

There are currently seven townhouse and apartment managers, three of whom are seniors and four of whom are juniors. If the juniors choose to work all eight days of Senior Week, Sousa said, senior managers will work shifts earlier in May.

“Seniors would frontload duty and then the juniors would cover duty during Senior Week, but it’s a staff decision. I can’t mandate four people to do something that [three] other people aren’t doing,” Sousa said. “That’s still the hope since we only have three seniors now.”

Apartment manager Steve Teti ’07 said he will comply with the contract, even if it means working during Senior Week. But he hopes this will not be the case.

“Hopefully, the juniors that are on staff will be able to work most of the days and the seniors won’t actually have to work that often,” he said.

Sousa said there is a period of time between the end of finals and the beginning of Senior Week during which managers can work.

“There are three days where there’s nobody on campus but seniors,” he said. “Those are prime days that seniors can cover because it’s not conflicting with any event; they don’t have to worry about finals, they don’t have to worry about classes.”

According to Mike Wood ’07, a former townhouse manager who resigned from his position last week for personal reasons, there is no guarantee that the four juniors will comply.

“What [Sousa] said is true if the juniors wanted to do that,” Wood said. “I don’t know if they do. They’ve all been very supportive with the whole thing, and I think they might be considering doing something like that. But the decision is in their hands, not in the office’s. Presumably if they said, ‘No, we don’t want to do that,’ then seniors would be required to work at least one day a person during Senior Week.”

Wood said that the managers’ contract is the same as last year’s, but senior managers were not asked to work during Senior Week.

“I assumed, perhaps it was poorly of me to assume, that we also would not be on duty this year,” he said.

Apartment manager LaQueta Hudson ’07 said it was unclear whether senior managers will be required to work during Senior Week.

“I think one senior may have to work one day, but I’m not sure,” she said. “The way [Sousa] says it is that we’re only required to work two nights or two days, and those days can be earlier or later. We haven’t sat down and done any scheduling for that yet.”

Hudson said she does not want to be on duty during these days but understands Residence Life’s decision.

“Do I like working senior week? I’m going to say no, I don’t,” she said. “But I do understand the circumstances. This is just something that they need us to do.”

Hudson agreed with Sousa.

“It’s better not to have Public Safety policing [students] all night so that they can focus on other emergencies,” she said. “[Students are] much more receptive to townhouse managers. But when you show up and Public Safety is standing behind you, people freak out, and the last thing you want is for people to be freaking out when they’re drunk.”

In addition, Hudson said eliminating one day of drinking is acceptable.

“With this campus and all the binge drinking, what’s so wrong about sobriety?” Hudson said. “If you go on duty and you’re hanging out with your friends and you’re also watching out for their safety, no big deal. If you can’t drink one day, you’ll have four other days to drink.”

Wood said Residence Life made a mistake asking senior managers to work during Senior Week.

“It’s unfair because it’s our last week of college,” he said.

Brittany Teahan ’07, a member of the Senior Week committee for the past two years, agreed.

“I think senior townhouse and apartment managers should be allowed to spend one last week together with our class,” she said. “By prohibiting them from spending the week, it diminishes the class’s experience as a whole. It’s something that all seniors look forward to.”