College houses across campus offer services like computer help and pizza study breaks, but only one had a house dean who was willing to make wake-up calls.
But not for long.
Roberta Stack, the house dean of Hamilton College House, is leaving Penn to take a position at Northwestern University on Oct. 11. Stack, who has served as dean since the college house system began, is known among her fellow staffers for putting in the extra effort to make her tenants' lives better -- even if that involves making phone calls to wake up students in the event of a power outage.
"What makes Roberta special is that she adds a personal or homey touch to a high rise, which I think is almost impossible to do," said Max Covil, who has served as a graduate associate in Hamilton for three years. "I think that goes for the students as well as the staff... she always goes the extra mile.
"If a student has a problem or a staff member has a problem, she will look into the problems and take care of them personally. The staff here is very sad to see her go."
Stack, who has taught courses in the English Department, worked in Hill College House as a GA, senior fellow and assistant dean before the inception of the college house system four years ago.
Since then, fellow Hamilton staff members said she turned the high rise into an intellectual yet fun and friendly home for hundreds of students.
"Under Roberta's leadership, High Rise North -- a faceless apartment building marked by anonymity -- transformed into the bustling community we all now know to be Hamilton College House," House Coordinator Amy Singh said in an e-mail statement. "Although Hamilton is short on common spaces, the spaces that exist have been developed to their fuller potential during Roberta's tenure.
"From the studious Rooftop Study Lounge to the recreational Underground, Hamiltonians have been provided with ample reasons to leave their apartments and hang out with their neighbors," she added.
Michael Gamer, Hamilton's acting faculty master, agreed that Stack organizes much of what goes on within the college house.
"Roberta runs the dorms and coordinates all the programs and basically is the lifeblood of the dorm," Gamer wrote in an e-mail.
While others praise Stack for the programs she has implemented and for organizing the House so well, Stack says that the best part of her job was meeting different people.
"I have met and worked with amazing people over these years...," she said in an e-mail statement. "All of these people have had a tremendous impact on the lives of Penn's campus residents and working as part of that team has enriched my life immeasurably."
Stack will leave Penn to serve as a lecturer in Communication Studies and as a special assistant to the dean of undergraduate education in the School of Communication at Northwestern.
Corresponding with her academic interests in literature, film and theater, she will be advising students in the radio, television, film and performance studies departments and will act as coordinator of the undergraduate curriculum.
"It's a great opportunity to work in premiere departments of film and performance studies at a top university," Stack wrote. "Also, after an absence of 20 years, I will now be moving back to my home town, close to my family."
Despite her high hopes for her career at Northwestern, Stack says she has mixed feelings about leaving Penn.
She wrote she is "both happy for the amazing opportunity before me, and very sad to be leaving Penn and all of the people here whom I value so highly."
According to Gamer, a national search to replace Stack is underway.
