Editor's Note: This is the fifth of a multi-part series profiling essential members of the College community who make Dartmouth operate smoothly every day.
Although few students know her, Rachael Class-Giguere leads one of the few College efforts that every student encounters -- residential housing. As Director of Undergraduate Student Housing, Class-Giguere is responsible for pairing roommates, assigning suites and overseeing the bedlam commonly referred to as Room Draw.
Limited housing facilities, 4,000 students and the complexities of the D-Plan create special challenges for housing employees like Class-Giguere.
Further complicating her job is freshman housing and the challenge of matching students to similarly-minded roommates. Class-Giguere said that her staff has little to go by.
When incoming students are asked to describe their ideal roommate using four adjectives, most write "nice, outgoing or fun," words that say little about the individual.
There is the occasional exception, however, as a handful of applicants make requests based on religion, athleticism, politics and musical taste.
Although she said most requests can be met, there is no way of pleasing every Dartmouth student.
"We once had a student say, 'I can't live with someone who listens to Eminem.' We have no way of knowing this," Class-Giguere said.
She also mentioned the unpopularity arising from the River Cluster Treehouses, which always seem to disappoint students.
Class-Giguere said that her sense of humor keeps her sane.
"Sometimes we joke that maybe it'd be better to just have a big bucket of keys on the green and say, go pick your room," Class-Giguere joked. "But even though it doesn't always work out, we genuinely try to put everyone where they want to be."
Class-Giguere said that the new McLaughlin residential cluster and the Tuck Mall residence halls will make it easier to please students.
The new dorms will not only make available 500 new beds, but will make possible the renovation of older housing buildings that are in need of considerable repairs. The renovations are slated to occur soon after the completion of the new dormitories, starting with Hitchock Hall.
Some doubles in the older dormitories now house three students, a situation the College hopes to rectify.
"I walk by the new dorms every day on my lunch break and become excited," she said. "After years of telling students buildings are in the works, I can finally say it's true."
Born and raised as an only child in the small town of Eliot, Maine, Class-Giguere said she had much to learn living with her freshman roommate, Erica, at Wheaton College in Illinois.
Like many Dartmouth undergraduates, Class-Giguere said she experienced similar frustrations with college living. Her rooming frustrations culminated in a period of silence with her roommate, she said.
"Neither one of us wanted to admit we were angry. But that's not life," Class-Giguere said. "I learned that you could be angry, talk about it, resolve it and be stronger for it. There's such a reluctance to deal with anger. People think it will mean something awful."
Although no longer sharing a one-room double, Class-Giguere and Erica remain in touch and, today, regard each other as best friends.
Class-Giguere never intended to enter the education field. At Wheaton, she majored in history and planned on becoming a professional historian focusing on American history. She reconsidered her plans, however, after being rejected from every Ph.D. program she applied to her senior year of college.
"I was so naive then. Now I know that it's foolish to apply to only Ph.D. programs straight out of college," Class-Giguere said.
Frazzled by her rejections, she went to Wheaton's career services office, where they suggested that she become a full-time college community director.
Having previously considered the position as a temporary way to pay for graduate school, Class-Giguere took the advice and worked for two years at Franklin Pierce College in New Hampshire. As a so-called "party school," much of her time at Franklin Pierce was spent disciplining underage drinking and dealing with judicial hearings.
Class-Giguere said she enjoyed the work and fostered an interest in higher education.
After two years at Franklin Pierce, though, she was convinced to pursue a master's in education.
"If you're still remotely interested in higher education after this job, you are destined to stay in this field," a mentor at Franklin Pierce College said.
After completing a two-year master's program at the University of Vermont, she worked as assistant director of student life at Benington College in Vermont. It was at Benington that Class-Giguere met her husband. The two married in Vermont and moved to Hanover, where Class-Giguere began her work with the Office of Residential Life in 2001. She regards the position a natural fit for her personality.
"People laugh when I say this, but I've always liked logic problems that are involved in making housing assignments," Class-Giguere said. "It's like a puzzle, and I always liked that organizational aspect of it."
