While many students went home for break during Commencement and Reunion, others stayed behind to work for the College and earn some extra money.
During interim period, the College paid students to clean up and maintain dormitory rooms for the Office of Residential Life and work for Dartmouth Dining Services and Safety and Security.
Many of the students workers said they felt like they were paid to sit, read and nap.
Some students who worked for Safety and Security said they appreciated having free time but others said they found it insulting to just sit and guard empty tents.
"It was demeaning for an Ivy League student to get paid for doing nothing," Amy Stein '97 said. "It showed me that a lot of the world works doing nothing."
"I guess I'm used to getting paid for thinking," Stein added. "Even when you're working in a supermarket, you're thinking."
She said her job was to sit under a tent to prevent people from stealing things, like the food and beverages in the tent.
"Nothing bad was going to happen because the only people around were people who were working," Stein said.
She also said there were too many students employed.
"There were five tents on Tuck drive and you could have had one person watching them," but instead there was one person per tent, Stein said.
Karen Stern '97 said she worked for Safety and Security during the same shift and also had a lot of free time.
"One day, I basically guarded a barrier so people didn't go down Tuck Drive and run over little children," she said.
But she said she did not mind having the free time because it gave her a chance to do things she enjoyed, but never had time to do during school, such as reading and sewing.
Stern said the best time she had during interim was when she guarded the tent for the Class of 1960.
"When I was in the Class of 1960's tent, they were very animated." she said. "It was actually really exciting to hear about all the things that had changed. It was a lot of fun dancing with them."
Allison Pope '97, who worked for Safety and Security, wrote in an electronic-mail message that she also enjoyed talking to alumni and to Safety and Security officers.
"I had a lot of interesting conversations with Safety and Security officers," Pope wrote. "I heard about the haunted places on campus and stories about other classes and reunions."
But Pope also wrote that she "basically sat in or near tents and made sure they didn't get vandalized or the stuff inside didn't get stolen. Nothing too stressful," she wrote. "One day I sat by a barrier and actually had to get up a few times to move it for people."
Students working for ORL also expressed their boredom over interim and their dissatisfaction with working conditions.
"They hired too many people and distributed hours unfairly," Scott Armstrong '97 wrote in an electronic-mail message.
But he pointed out that he got a chance "to work with free housing and some food money, and got to go to graduation," in addition to getting "paid for taking the occasional nap."
Nicole Weinreb '97 wrote in an electronic-mail message that she spent four to eight hours per day working for ORL cleaning rooms and running errands, like delivering keys and making beds.
"The most positive thing was that I got to say good-bye to all the seniors," she wrote.
"The most negative was that when I wasn't working I had absolutely nothing to do and I was bored out of my mind," she wrote.
In contrast to the other workers, students who catered for DDS said they worked hard.
Sariya Sharp '97 said she worked very irregular hours, but worked on the average 10 hours per day.
"We were always kept busy," she said. "Being bored was never an issue."
She said she really enjoyed working during interim because catering pays very well, she got free housing and she got to be with her friends.
Explaining why her experiences were different from other students who did not work for DDS, Sharp said "DDS is totally separate. We're housed together and paid differently."
Additional reporting by News Editor Amy Semet.