Jason Downer, Associate Director of Residence Life, is more than just the man who controls where you’re living. He sat down for an interview where he revealed his love of baking, his favorite thing about living on a college campus and discussed the future of seniors living at the beach.
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The Mirror: So your official job title is Associate Director of Residence Life – what does that entail?
Jason Downer: That entails many things. The first responsibilities are housing assignments, some of the living & learning communities, I am the main contact with the Facilities Management Department between our students and our office and them, I coordinate closing and opening of the residence halls and townhouses, I coordinate all the lottery processes, I do the actual matching for freshmen housing assignments, I supervise four of the professional staff members here in Residence Life – three area coordinators and one assistant director. I also serve as a judicial hearing officer and I approve all of the RA reports when they write documentations I approve all of those every morning. There are other things that I do, but within that official title of Associate Director that’s what I do.
TM: So I can’t imagine that when you were growing up you imagined you would end up as Associate Director of Residence Life. As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
JD: The first thing I wanted to be was a chef.
TM: A chef? What happened there?
JD: I think I turned to baking and I like baking more as a hobby. Chef school or culinary institute whatever it’s called didn’t really appeal to me – I like to bake. Then when I started college I was a communication major and I wanted to work behind the scenes as a producer in news and that just didn’t appeal to me once I started interning and learning about the news and how it’s controlled I didn’t really want to be a part of that. Then I became a history major and graduated with a history degree.
TM: There are a lot of rumors about Residence Life trying to eliminate the option for seniors to live at the beach.
JD: Oh yes, I’ve heard that rumor.
TM: Would you like to comment on that – is it true?
JD: No, it’s not true. There are the new buildings that we’re building and we’re renovating Dolan Hall. Our priorities are to bring townhouses back down to four and six person houses instead of fives and sevens. We want to get juniors who have been living in Claver for the past 10-15 years out of Claver. Our goal is not to eliminate the beach.
TM: You mentioned that you do the freshmen housing assignments. Do you just grab two random housing surveys and call them roommates or do you throw the surveys against the wall and see which stick? Is there a method to your madness?
JD: Sometimes I think that would work out just as well, but there is a method to the madness. Once everybody submits their applications we input it all into a database and we sort by a certain number of factors, the first being gender. Then from there the first group we look at are the people who requested a converted triple and we match them based on sleeping habits and all that. We don’t intentionally put people who say they’re really neat with people who say they’re messy – that’s just asking for problems. So we typically start with the very neat ones and then we don’t put them all on the first floor of Regis and say you’re all going to be very neat together. We try to build unique communities as well throughout the process.
TM: I’m sure as a member of the Residence Life staff you’ve got to stay unbiased, but give me the real scoop – where’s the best place to live on campus?
JD: The best place to live on campus? Well, I think it depends on what you’re looking at. I lived in Gonzaga Hall for a year and a half. I think of all the quad buildings, Gonzaga Hall is the best quad building. For a junior and senior environment, I live in a townhouse now, I would love to have had a townhouse like that when I was in school.
TM: You said you live in the townhouses – what’s the best thing about living on a college campus?
JD: Summer! (laughs) No I’m just kidding; I like the energy of it. I get to see the different sides of students from the different ways they’re involved and engaged around campus during the day to when they’re happy and out with their friends at night on the weekends. Laughs. It’s a good energy.
TM: If there was one thing about Jason Downer you wanted people to know – what would it be?
JD: I don’t fix the lottery. I don’t take bribes.
TM: But if someone were to bribe you, what kind of bribe are we talking about, money?
JD: (laughs) I don’t need money. I do like baked goods. Baked goods are thoughtful.
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