Administrators to recruit staff for new college houses

The University is getting set to kick off a massive recruitment campaign to staff the 12 new residential college houses that take effect next fall. The redesigned residential system, designed to provide a range of support services in all dormitories, will require a larger in-house staff, according to Director of Academic Programs and Residence Life Chris Dennis. Each house will have a faculty master, a residence dean, faculty fellows, graduate associates and undergraduate residential advisors. Paying house deans and providing room and board to more faculty members, GAs and RAs will form the bulk of the additional $680,000 in annual operating costs required by the new system. Between the additional staff positions and replacements for retiring faculty masters, officials must appoint a total of five new faculty masters. Ware College House Faculty Master Jan Van der Spiegel, an Electrical Engineering professor, Goldberg House Master Ken Shropshire, a Legal Studies professor and Stouffer College House Faculty Master Karl Otto, chairperson of the German Department, will all finish their terms in May. But since the new college house system calls for the Quadrangle to be reorganized into four houses rather than the current five, Van der Spiegel and Shropshire will require only one replacement between them, Dennis said. Art History Professor David Brownlee, who authored the report recommending the new system, has already volunteered to fill one the five slots. He is awaiting approval from the Provost's office. The other faculty masters will be located through advertisements in Almanac asking for nominations and applications. Because of increased need, the recruitment process for masters will be more widespread than in past years, when the University tried to target specific candidates to prevent an overflow of applications for a few positions, according to Dennis. Once the faculty masters are appointed, they will meet with the house councils to determine potential candidates for faculty fellow positions. While the University already has 24 faculty fellows, four new positions will be created next fall. It is uncertain how many of the current faculty fellows will retire after the spring semester, Dennis said. The number of RAs and GAs will also increase. Eight additional RAs will bring the total to 90, while the number of GAs will increase from 70 to 104. Many houses currently lack GAs, which accounts for their larger increase. Residence Life will begin advertising for the RA and GA positions next month. Interviews will take place in January and February. Dennis said he is confident that his office will be able to fill the positions. Residential staffing jobs are attractive as a learning experience and because they allow students to work on projects they may not be able to accomplish as part of their classes, through symposia and special lecture programs, he added. Faculty and students agreed that the jobs provide several benefits. Van der Spiegel said his seven years in Ware have been among his best experiences at Penn, adding that he strongly recommends all faculty members consider living in the residences. "It has opened a window to a side of the campus that we as faculty otherwise don't get to see or have access to," he said. "I can go over that line of just classroom teaching and extend to education beyond the classroom." David Miller, an administrative and graduate fellow in Modern Languages College House, agreed that working in a residence provides a unique opportunity to educate students. "It is almost an alternate pedagogy," Miller said. "Through informal discussions learning actually does take place in a pressure-free environment." High Rise North RA David Futer, a College junior, said he enjoyed having the opportunity to contribute to students' residential experience. Although the University offers residential staff members benefits ranging from room and board to a guaranteed sabbatical for faculty masters finishing their terms, Dennis said the benefits are not the main reason why students and faculty take the jobs. "No one really does it for the perks involved," he said. "I think they are looking to communicate with the Penn community. But some say the "perks" are substantial enough to be huge plus. "The free room and meals are a pretty good incentive," Futer said.

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