Two Hats for Senior Tutors

Last week, Lowell House Senior Tutor Marshall T. Poe announced his decision to resign at the end of this academic year. Poe cited a disagreement between himself and Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis ’68 over the appropriate role of the Allston Burr Senior Tutor in the House community. Poe said he believed that a senior tutor should be first and foremost involved in student life as an advisor and counselor, whereas the College saw the job as primarily administrative. With Poe’s resignation and the recent appointment of five new senior tutors for the upcoming academic year, the College should keep in mind that an effective senior tutor must be adept at both administrative work and social interaction.

In the official guide “Information for Faculty Offering Instruction in Arts and Sciences,” the University specifies that each senior tutor is “directly responsible for the academic and personal welfare of undergraduates.” These two responsibilities are not mutually exclusive; in fact, they go hand-in-hand. Each senior tutor is an assistant dean of the College, and is thus the primary advisor for students on academic issues. When students add or drop courses, change concentrations, experience difficulty with a professor or take leaves of absence, the senior tutor must advise them on the action and its consequences. The senior tutor also serves as a member of the Administrative Board, and is therefore the student’s liaison to the College’s disciplinary process.

These important administrative responsibilities are complemented by the fact that the senior tutor resides in the House. This close proximity to students mandates personal interaction. Academic performance is closely tied with a person’s well-being, and so it naturally makes sense that senior tutors interact with the students they serve. In order to interact meaningfully with students in a more informal context, senior tutors must be active in the House community—playing intramural sports, helping to organize an opera, performing in a band. This everyday involvement not only contributes to House community; for those students who want experienced counselors to talk to, it provides another outlet for advice.

The College must continue to appoint senior tutors who are both administratively competent and personally dynamic. These roles cannot be mutually exclusive; those who do both well will be incomparable resources for students in the Houses.