Five graduate students selected by the Office of Residential Life last spring to live in undergraduate dormitories moved into their apartments at the beginning of this term.
Renovations that turned the dormitory rooms into apartments this summer, including the addition of small kitchens to each, cost approximately $2,500 for each room.
As part of ORL's residential staff, the graduate associates, Stephanie Beebe, Shawn-Marie Mayrand, Maureen McGrath, Bruce Sneddon and Len Wisniewski, will work with Area Coordinators and Undergraduate Advisors to give academic advice and counseling to all cluster residents.
"We're not just here for freshmen but for upperclassmen too," said Sneddon, a graduate student in pharmacology who lives in the Russell Sage-Butterfield cluster. "And for cluster residents that don't have [graduate associates], they're welcome to blitz me or call me if they have things to talk about."
The graduate associates will not take over any of the responsibilities of the ACs or UGAs, according to ORL staff members.
"He's not here to do my job. He's not like a supervisor. He just helps people brainstorm," said Dana White '94, the area coordinator for Russell Sage-Butterfield.
Sneddon said he will act as "an adviser for [ACs and UGAs] as well as for the students in the cluster."
McGrath, the graduate associate for the East Wheelock cluster and a student at the Thayer School of Engineering said, "I think of myself as a role model and a source of information in terms of educational opportunities and questions."
Mayrand, a biochemistry and immunology student who lives in Massachusetts Row, agreed that the graduate associates can advise undergraduates about academics.
Undergraduates will be able to get information about graduate school and careers without "hunting for a faculty member or looking things up in books," Mayrand said.
"We're convenient," she added.
Though it has only been a few weeks since undergraduates moved into their rooms, the graduate associates said the program is running smoothly.
"So far it's worked out well," Mayrand said. "The reception seems to have been good.
"I have had a lot of positive feedback," she said. "I have had quite a few people who have been very interested in talking with me about courses and questions."
Some students have even asked Maynard to show them her research lab at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, she said.
Sneddon also said he has been greeted warmly by undergraduates. "People have been stopping me in the hall to say hi or to ask questions," Sneddon said.
Padraic Malinowski '97, who lives in Sneddon's cluster said, "[Bruce] is very friendly. We have no problem getting in touch with him."
Malinowski said the program is beneficial to undergraduates because the graduate associates are still students who can sympathize with the undergraduates, but they have already finished their undergraduate work and can offer a different perspective.
"I think it's an excellent program," Malinowski said.
Students in other dorms agreed that the graduate students are positive additions to the dorm.
"I think overall the GA program is a really great idea," said Andrew Swanson '97, who lives in the East Wheelock cluster. "[McGrath] is a great person."
Wisniewski, a graduate student in computer science, tries to be accessible to students and is an expert at solving computer problems that dorm residents have, Natasha Lam '97 said.
White, who said she was skeptical about the GA program before it began, is now convinced it will work.
"I wasn't sure what their role would be," White said. "I got over that quickly."
"People are starting to come to [Bruce] to ask questions about curriculum and graduate school," she added.
The program "is working well in our cluster. I don't see it as taking away from the dorm," White said.
But she said not everyone will like the idea of graduate students living with undergraduates.
"There will always be people who will be suspicious," she said.
