Interviews Strain Summer Proctors

While most students expect interviews for summer jobs to be challenging, few have ever had grammar books shoved in their faces.

But the process of becoming a Harvard Summer School proctor isn't like most jobs.

One undergraduate applied to be a proctor last month. Her interview went well, she said--until she accidentally used the word "hopefully."

"[The interviewer] turns around, gets a book off the bookshelf, asks me if I am familiar with this book, and tells me to read the paragraph [explaining that] 'hopefully' is incorrect grammar," said the student, who asked that her name be withheld.

The interviewer was able to turn to the exact page and paragraph containing the rule, which were bookmarked.

"It made me feel horrible about the whole interview," the student says.

Students who have applied to be Summer School proctors say the process can be brutal--more than one undergraduate has been reduced to tears. Some say interviewers for the program are unnecessarily harsh and demanding, making their best efforts to unnerve undergraduate applicants.

But administrators at Harvard's Division of Continuing Education--which administers the Summer School program--defend the rough treatment.

"Life is full of surprises, and proctors need to be prepared for unexpected developments," says Christopher S. Queen, dean of students for the continuing education division.

Trial by Fire

Summer School officials set the tone before students even arrive for their interviews.

The student who applied last month says she received a call the day before her interview, insisting that she "call between 7 and 7:30 a.m. and only between 7 and 7:30 a.m." to set up the meeting.

She knew the process would not be easy as soon as she was handed a card in the waiting room, apologizing in advance for frightening her.

"They want to know how you will react in certain situations," she says.

Queen says despite what it may seem, the interviewers are not necessarily trying to make students feel bad, but only to ensure they are prepared for the tougher aspects of being a proctor.

"I think the purpose of the interview, no matter what the style, is to find out what instincts a candidate has in situations that involve problem-solving," he says.

He says the Summer School looks for decisiveness, self-confidence, maturity and leadership.

But some students say they think interviewers could gauge those abilities without being so unfriendly.

David A. Sivak '00, who applied to be a proctor two years ago, described his interviewer as "not the most accommodating of people."

During Sivak's interview, the administrator described a scenario in which he is awakened at three in the morning by loud music. He goes into the room from which the music is blaring to discover eight students along with two six-packs of Budweiser on the floor.

A female student starts crying. She says she is from Wellesley summer school, and she wants to go home.

"What do you do?" the interviewer asked.

Sivak says he was caught off guard by the question and by how narrow the acceptable response was.

"I started stammering about how I would sit them down and talk about the responsibilities of drinking," he says.

But his interviewer told him that the correct response would be to talk to the students long enough to memorize their faces in case they refused to give their names.

"Do you think you could do that?" his interviewer asked.

Sivak was on the verge of tears.

"At the time, I was fairly distraught," he says.

Why challenge inexperienced undergraduates with such detailed questions? Queen says that proctors often encounter students breaking the rules, and they need to be prepared to deal with offenders.

Sivak admits that the difficulty of the interview was justified in part by the responsibility of the job. He was not accepted but was later given a position the following summer.

Eli L. Diamond '01 also says that the interviews were excessively unpleasant.

"I remember thinking the extensiveness of the questions was unnecessary," he says. "They had clearly read my essay very well and interrogated me about it."

Once he started explaining how he would handle a situation, Diamond says, he was confined to his initial response. At one point, the interviewer yelled at him.

"He shouted, 'If you did that, I'd be sorry I hired you,'" Diamond says.

Passing the Test

The process may be harsh, but at least it seems to work, producing qualified proctors from the student population each year.

"We're very pleased with undergraduates," Queen says. "They're really the perfect candidates for this system."

Between 300 and 400 students apply each year, Queen says. Only half that number are interviewed, and about 75 are hired.

Dan L. Cenden '00, who was chosen to be a proctor, said the interview prepared him well for his task.

"The situation [described in the interview] was a lot rougher than anything I had to deal with over the summer, but it's good preparation to see if you're really ready to handle the most severe of situations," he says.

But effective or not, many students say they were shaken by the process.

"It's militaristic," one student says. "I just did not like it."