Some people think that being an officer in an MIT dorm is nothing but a tedious, cumbersome burden that only kind hearted altruists sign up for to prolong their residence rights and to have some volunteer experience on their CV. Although some of that might be true, being an officer actually also brings extravagant living perks that help every coward boost her or his ego and might even help the one or the other nerd getting laid.
On a more serious note, what does it really bring? Looking back at my current experience as hall councilor, I would name 3 big categories in which we profit as officers: 1) Improvements of personal life in the dorm, 2) The opportunity to make LOTS of new friends and 3) The social impact on MIT graduate society.
For the first point, it is one of the biggest incentives for people to sign up at first. You can stay longer in your preferred dorm and acquire seniority points with which you might eventually even chose a nice comfy room. This point is pretty much self explanatory and is the only “hard coded fact” on officer perks, but keep in mind that at the same time it actually is the weakest benefit to being involved in the house council.
Being an officer can be more fun than you might have thought.
More importantly, this is one great opportunity for you to take part in MIT’s life and become part of our colorful, amiable graduate community. Thinking about my aforementioned 2nd point – the opportunity to make new friends – there are hundreds of smiling faces coming to my mind that I got to know over the extended house council network. Not only are we all connected by our common goal to improve graduate student life, but we all are also willing to expose ourselves and reach out to the community, giving us innumerable opportunities to get to know new people and make new friends. Whichever event I go to, there will always be active people I know now and it will never feel awkward or lonely to attend a campus party. Moreover there are also monthly special events held for officers only which help us socializing and relaxing from the everyday research stress. It is important to mention here that all the events or parties I am talking about here are mostly organized by other officers, which leads me to the previously mentioned 3rd point – the social impact of officers.
Basically we have the power to decide where resources are spent. Do we want to buy new equipment and beautify our dorm or would we rather hold another event? What kinds of events are being held? This choice brings forth lots of creativity and opportunities to experience exciting new things like trampoline jumping or beer brewing (just 2 of this year’s IAP’s events). We decide on resident activities and thus partly form how they perceive MIT, which will hopefully ultimately stay in their minds when they go out into the real world and think back about their time here.
This is what keeps me going and motivated in my work as officer, making me forget every bit of dullness that this position may sometimes bring (Does it actually?). I really cannot remember any second I regret taking my position as hall councilor, nor any second I felt bored doing this job. For me, this will always stay a wonderful memory to have had the honor to be part of and form the MIT graduate society to some extent.
By Yuan Wang, SP 4-North Hall Councilor