"It involves your whole life. You can't do it by e-mail. You can't do it from an office elsewhere on campus," says Mobley, who lives in Winthrop with his wife Page Kelley and their children, Esther M. Mobley and Gregory M. Kelley.

Senior tutors and administrators define the job of an Allston Burr Senior Tutor as being responsible for keeping students safe and making sure they graduate.

In addition, the official job description includes organizing House activities, writing letters of recommendation and academic and non-academic advising.

"The senior tutor's job is so crucial that I would hope...the qualifications for that job [are] central in the hiring process," Mobley says. "They should hire senior tutors and work with departments to find a way to help them teach."

In fact, the Report on the Structure of Harvard College proposes doing just that.

"The position might be very attractive to postdoctoral scientists or teachers from elsewhere aiming to make a career in scholarship or administration," the report reads.

"If possible, funds might be raised to endow the Senior Tutorships, making the teaching half 'free' to departments... Because the Senior Tutorship would not be dependent upon a pre-existing Harvard 'half,'" it would then be advertised nationally."

Mobley, who says he is disappointed he has not heard more discussion of this proposal, points out that Yale already funds the teaching component of the job.

Currier House Senior Tutor John D. Stubbs cut his job as a curatorial associate at the Peabody Museum down to half-time this fall when he joined the ranks of the Allston Burr Senior Tutors.

"Really, so far I've been able to keep it half and half," Stubbs says. "[But] as a senior tutor, a lot of the work goes beyond the 9-to-5 workday. I don't go to the museum in the morning without stopping by [the Currier House] office first."

"It's more than half-time because there's this residential time when you can't help but do business," Stubbs adds.

Living and Learning

Mobley says it is imperative that senior tutors be involved in some academic work.

"It keeps you sane as a senior tutor to be doing academic work. It's good to keep the intellectual juices flowing," says Mobley, who is a lecturer at the Divinity School and is involved in research on the Dead Sea Scrolls.

"The most successful moments for me as a senior tutor are when I can help students in a way which connects with my own academic life," he says.