Some houses will name GAs tomorrow

Several dorms said they will name some of their graduate associates. As the University's 12 college houses prepare to send out offers tomorrow to prospective graduate associates, officials are reporting mixed results in how many staff applications have been received by the various houses. As of yesterday, 91 students had applied for the 104 positions. The most recent breakdown of applications by house was done Monday, however, when only 89 students had applied, Director of Academic Programs and Residence Life Chris Dennis said. According to those numbers, 17 students submitted 34 applications for 26 positions in the Quadrangle. Applicants can choose to interview with all 12 of the houses. "They're light right now," Residence Life Director Chris Dennis said last week about applications for the Quad. "We always knew that would be the toughest sell." While the fewest applications have been directed at the Quad houses, the high rises -- which have the largest number of available spots -- have received the most applications, with 80 for 33 spots. But the pool of candidates applying to be GAs in the Quad, as well as the other houses, is impressive, according to many of the residential staff members conducting the interviews. "We were quite impressed by the candidates," said outgoing Ware College House Faculty Master Jan Van der Spiegel, an Electrical Engineering professor. He noted that Ware residents have interviewed most of the candidates and will be ready to begin making offers to some of them tomorrow. And King's Court/English House Faculty Master Jorge Santiago-Aviles described his pool of 25 applicants as "outstanding." Jane Rogers -- who is assistant dean of soon-to-be-defunct Butcher-Speakman-Class of 1928 but is coordinating the hiring process for Goldberg House this year -- said "a couple" of prospective GAs have withdrawn their applications from Goldberg since the interviewing process began. Still, she's not concerned about the smaller applicant pool. Referring to her past experience in hiring resident advisers, Rogers said she has "found some of my best staff in the spring." But Community House Faculty Master Stephen Gale, a Regional Science professor, said he's aware that the 10 graduate students who have applied to live in his house have probably applied to many other houses. He said the number can be deceiving. Gale added that he would rather say that "only 10 people have applied as GAs to us." But Rogers said Goldberg House is prepared for the competition, and "will go to work" to convince GAs who have received other offers to work for the house. Officials at Residence Life said they expect "many more" applications to arrive in their office this semester -- especially with the recent launch of a new marketing campaign. Last Friday, Residence Life sent out a mailing to all current graduate students, reminding them of the open positions. Next month, all incoming graduate students will get the letter. The office also produced a new brochure and an enhanced GA Web site last week. The School of Arts and Sciences, the Graduate School of Education and the School of Social Work have begun to nominate students who are eligible for certain fellowship awards, or financial packages from their departments, for GA positions.