ADDED RESPONSIBILITY

In addition to being proctors and graduate students, proctor parents face the added challenge of raising young children.

Some undergraduates feel their proctors’ responsibilities as parents can limit their availability.

“Where [my proctor] can go and what she can do is based on how long she can go without the baby,” a student says, who requested anonymity to avoid identifying the proctor. “If you want to interact with [her], then you are interacting with [her] and the baby.”

Page, Nora’s mother, says when family problems arise, she cannot always devote her attention to her students.

She says, however, she thinks the situation was more problematic when Nora was a toddler and demanded more attention.

“She would be in the fit of crying and somebody would show up at the door,” she says. “Now she is older, more reasonable.”

Having a child in the entryway may sometimes distract proctor parents, but students and PAFs say it also fosters a more mature atmosphere in the entryway.

Spira says she thinks the presence of a child in the entryway prompts students to be more cognizant of rules about alcohol and drugs.

Some students say they consider their proctors as almost second parents.

“We always want to be on our best behavior in front of them,” Stephen says.

Dean of Freshmen Thomas A. Dingman ’67, who raised his children on campus as a Resident Dean in Leverett, says proctor parents tend to make dorms feel more like a home to many students.

“They [bring] a perspective that somebody who’s just finishing the undergraduate years doesn’t have,” Dingman says.

HOME, SWEET HOME

The environment in which proctors raise their children is not the differentiating factor—the physical space on campus is vastly different from what they would likely experience in a suburb.