Autumn quarter may seem like it is worlds away, but eager applicants across campus have begun the Row’s annual manager selection process. Scores of students hoping to obtain highly-coveted Row house staff positions are currently competing for jobs, some of which include kitchen manager, house manager and social manager, while those wishing to be a Resident Assistant (RA) or an academic staff member will begin the application process later this quarter. As a result of hiring and training discontinuities, including the separate application processes, each group of Row house staff members is often divided before the school year even begins, leading to negative consequences for staff and residents alike.

In the weeks before the new school year begins, staff members pour onto campus for training. However, due to conflicting schedules and different meal plans for various positions, coordination among house staff members proves to be a challenge. While it is understandable that each house’s staff must split up to attend job-specific meetings — all kitchen managers attend one workshop while financial managers attend another — these events do separate house team members from the start of their time spent together. The workshops are often scheduled at different times on different days, taking away from time that could be spent accomplishing house-specific tasks as a group.

The division in eating plans further separates house staff members during this formative training period. In the weeks leading up to the start of school, managers’ meals are provided via per-diem cash reimbursements, while the meals of RAs and academic staff members are provided via the dorm system. Thus, some staff members eat meals in Tresidder while others head to Wilbur Dining, making mealtimes — which could be opportune settings to build social capital between house staff members — a wasted opportunity to build such necessary connections.

These first days set a precedent for a more independent style of teamwork, making event-planning and theme-choosing a toilsome chore for some groups of staff members. If teams do not have a chance to spend time and become friends with one another, the house staff members will suffer setbacks working for the residents throughout the year.

Social capital is an important aspect of any successful team. If teammates hope to accomplish anything worthwhile, they must trust each other and feel a sense of commitment to the collective cause. Not building up this capital during staff training can be fatal to the implementation of events as minor as house meetings and as significant as special dinners.

Residents are the people who suffer the most from a lack of staff cohesiveness. In addition to coveting a good location on campus, Row house residents often seek the intimate atmosphere and special social circumstances that come with living on the Row.

Unlike Row staff members, dorm staffs, especially those of freshman dorms, tend to be extremely close-knit. These staffs, which have a plethora of opportunities to spend time together, set an example of how a group of people can work together to provide an excellent living environment for residents. Perhaps the Row administration could learn from a similar form of organization and initiate more structured events for all house staff members — such as providing them all with a single meal plan during staff training.

As the Row administration proceeds into another application cycle, it must heed these accounts. The situation will not improve until changes are made to the training process so that staff members are not split apart during this crucial social capital-building time. Current students applying for next year’s Row staff positions should also take these points into consideration. They may just decide that the hassle outweighs the potential gain.