Tutor Applications See Spike

Becoming a House tutor this year just might be more competitive than getting into Harvard College itself.

Nearly 300 applicants are vying for six resident tutor openings in Mather House this year, a significant increase over previous years, according to Mather business tutor Joseph S. Ronayne ’92.

Other Houses have seen similar jumps, according to tutors and administrators, though they stressed the variable nature of application numbers and said they did not have concrete data from past application pools.

The spike in this year’s candidates—particularly graduate students—may reflect the position’s heightened appeal in light of limited job opportunities in the current economic climate.

“In difficult economic times, when people are more concerned with maintaining financial stability, becoming a tutor looks more attractive,” said Mather House Master Sandra A. Naddaff ’75.

In addition to stable housing, a limited meal plan, and in some cases a stipend, there are other advantages to the position, Nadaff said. Graduate school is often “isolating,” and Houses can provide tutors with a “sense of community,” she said.

Mather House officials weren’t the only ones to report a measurable spike in tutor applications—Adams House Master Judith S. Palfrey ’67 said that she was excited about a larger pool of “diverse” applicants in Adams.

Joshua D. Goldman, a fellowships tutor in Lowell House, said that though the number of annual applicants varies “widely,” applications were “much higher” this year.

Pforzheimer House Allston-Burr Resident Dean Lisa Boes said the House received “hundreds of applicants” this year, though she said she has yet to obtain a concrete number.

NOT JUST NUMBERS

But Boes said tutor selection can never be just a matter of numbers. Though the undergraduates, tutors, and House administrators active in tutor selection try to make diverse racial and sexual orientation a “number-one” consideration in the hiring process, Boes said, they are often constrained by the needs of individual Houses.

“Where we have flexibility, race and sexual orientation are a priority. But the more important question is, Where do the tutors come from?” Boes said. “What you don’t see is the other side of it—just because we have a ton of applicants doesn’t mean that we have enough chemistry or government tutors. There are certain fields that are really important to cover.”

In spite of these practical considerations, some Pfoho residents are voicing support for a top-down diversification of House tutors. Blake L. Johnson ’09 started a House-wide petition last week, which he says he will present to outgoing House Masters Sue and James J. McCarthy next Monday.

“As many of you are aware, our residential tutor staff in Pfoho is entirely white and heterosexual-identifying. As many of you are also aware, we as a student body are not,” Johnson wrote in an e-mail sent over the House’s list, adding that “this has been the case for two years.”

Johnson said his petition is timely in light of the selection, announced last Wednesday, of Law School Professor Ronald S. Sullivan Jr. and Law School lecturer Stephanie Robinson as the College’s first black House Masters—picks that reflected comments made by Dean of the College Evelynn M. Hammonds that she would like to foster greater diversity among a group that contains few minority members.

Despite that push, Pfoho’s new House Masters will not be minorities. Nicholas A. Christakis, a distinguished professor who works at both Harvard Medical School and the College, and his wife Erika—both white—will become Pfoho’s new House Masters in the fall, the College announced last night. Some Pforzheimer residents said before yesterday’s announcement that they had hoped their new House Masters would similarly reflect the diversity of their House community, in particular, and that of the campus in general.

“It’s a really encouraging piece of news for the administration to make our community represented,” said Pforzheimer resident Alneada D. Biggers ’10—who made House Master diversity a central issue in her unsuccessful bid for Undergraduate Council vice president this fall—of the Winthrop picks. “It makes me really proud of the dean of our college.”

—Staff writer Bita M. Assad can be reached at bassad@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Ahmed N. Mabruk can be reached at amabruk@fas.harvard.edu.