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Res hall summer overhaul

By April Beane
Photos by Ben Smidt

Lisa Jara, nursing junior, and Annie Kusper, communication junior, clean windows as part of their Summer Crew responsibilities.

The Marquette Summer Crew is not a t-shirt at the Spirit Shop. It’s 40 students who spend their summer getting the residence halls ready for fall. And there’s more work to be done than they imagined.

“I never thought about how much work had to be done to get the dorms back in a workable condition for someone new to move in,” says Jeremy Philipsen, a biomedical sciences senior.

For Dustin Hacker, a theology senior, the work can be a bit overwhelming.

“You don’t know how much you’re going to do over the summer and then it’s like you get rolling and it’s like drape checks, mattress checks, cable checks, all these different kind of random tasks we do — like checking the Ethernet cables — making sure everything in the room is working and fine for students to come in and live there,” Hacker says.

Crew members also change bedding for summer conferences on campus, provide tours during Preview orientation sessions for incoming freshmen, call freshmen and sophomores to ensure they are coming to Marquette, staff the information desks and help sort the mail.

A course in work ethics

Crew leader Rick Arcuri, associate dean for administration in the Office of Residence Life, admits they work “crazy hours”— five-to-seven days a week, some evenings, occasional weekends and overtime — but he says it’s more than a summer job.

“I preach work ethic and responsibility,” Arcuri says. “I know it is low-level work, but it is still a teachable moment. I think there are some people who gain significant experience coming through the summer program that stays with them. You’ll see them after graduation and they’ll say, ‘… it was the most meaningful employment I had while I was at campus. I made my best friends hanging out on Summer Crew.’ ”  

International affairs and political science senior Allison Ross agrees, “It’s like living and working with 40 of your closest friends.”

Here’s a look at Marquette’s 2012 Summer Crew — by the numbers:

10,662 room condition checks (six visits to each of the 1,777 student rooms on campus)
5,000+ hours worked
400 mattresses replaced
5,100 yards of carpet replaced (195 rooms)
2,500 gallons of paint rolled
800 drapery tracks repaired
407 drapery panels replaced