Two months ago, Kanoe Lum ’04 bought her first legal drink at a bar.
Three weeks later, 30 first-years moved in with her.
A recent grad from Pforzheimer House, Lum now resides in the proctor suite of Hollis North, and says she’s determined to use her unusually young age to her advantage in her stint as proctor.
“It’s a lot easier to relate to what [the freshmen] are going through. I can see myself in them. I think it’s easier for students to come to someone their own age.”
Having a proctor not much older than his or her freshman is by no means the rule—Dean of Freshmen Elizabeth S. Nathans says in an e-mail that Lum is “incidentally, the youngest person to have served as a Proctor within the past decade.”
“Age is not necessarily a crucial element,” Freshman Deans’ Office Administrator Robert M. Cronin says of the decision whether or not to hire a proctor. “An older proctor could be really bad. I just think it’s good that our proctors are not undergraduates so they have some distance.”
Lum has only four years’ distance from her own freshman year, but she says the proximity allows her to offer advantages students might not find from every proctor on campus.
“I’m familiar with the college. It helps a lot with academic advising.” Whether counseling students on what classes to take or suggesting a good restaurant for the night, Lum says she has immediate experience with the concerns of her freshmen.
So far, Lum seems to be loving life as a proctor. “It’s what I wanted to do since I was a freshman,” she says. Her particular group of first-years makes the experience especially fun, since they are, according to Lum, simply “awesome.”
Elizabeth A. Ullsot ’08, one of the freshmen living in the entryway, says the feeling is mutual.
“We all love Kanoe. It’s great because she’s been through what we’re all going through-—recently.”
Despite these glowing remarks, however, FM still has to wonder about the potentially awkward situations that might arise. Lum hasn’t busted a party yet because, according to her, “There hasn’t been occasion for that yet.” And, since Lum graduated a year early by taking advanced standing, many of her own friends are still seniors in the College. To avoid the risk of running into any of her freshmen while out on a weekend night, Lum says “I’ve opted not to go to any parties whatsoever.”
But what if some of her freshmen got to know (biblically or otherwise) her upper-class friends? Lum dismisses the possibility, saying “My friends are all writing theses. They don’t have time to hang out with my freshmen.”
