At work while at play: precept on the Street

Rather than spending most of the day taking classes and another part of the day on the Street, some students can do both at the same time.

Tower Club currently holds 14 history precepts in its Woodbridge Precept Room, and Charter Club is considering beginning hosting precepts this fall. Promotional materials sent by Tower to preceptors at the beginning of the spring semester laud the comfortable chairs, availability of coffee and convenience as the central benefits of the precepts held in the non-academic buildings.

Tower president Jamie Joseph ’13 said that the club also asked its members to reach out to their preceptors and encourage them to hold their precepts at the club.

"It really helps Tower broaden the service that it provides," Joseph said.

All 14 precepts are history courses. Tower Club did not specifically focus on the history department, Joseph explained, but she said it was particularly receptive.

Etta Recke, the administrator who is responsible for scheduling precepts for the history department, said that she first heard of the availability of Tower this past fall. The department began using the precept room that semester.

History professor Helmut Reimitz held his junior seminar this past fall in the Woodbridge Room and said he was very pleased with both the location and the coffee.

When she began scheduling precepts at the beginning of this spring semester, Recke said that she "just went through and sent as many as I could over there. I wanted to use it as much as possible."

Recke added that the precepts in Tower are quite popular.

"The preceptors that are using the Tower Club love it," Recke said.

A total of four history courses have precepts located in Tower — HIS 372: Revolutionary America, HIS 374: History of the American West, HIS 383: The United States, 1920-1974 and HIS 384: Gender and Sexuality in Modern America.

Christopher McConnell ’14, who attends a HIS 383 precept in the Woodbridge Room, said that students are just as pleased.

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"The idea of having a precept in one of the eating clubs is certainly cool," he said. "It provides a change of pace that makes precept just a little more interesting."

McConnell said he has enjoyed his experience and that the University should look into expanding the number of precepts held on the Street.

According to Charter president Rodrigo Menezes ’13, Charter is currently considering hosting precepts beginning next fall. The club does not presently host any precepts.

"In my opinion, there is some appeal to playing a larger educational role within the University," Menezes said in an email.

The University is not involved in scheduling precepts outside of standard classroom locations, according to Registrar Polly Griffin.

"We are involved in scheduling precepts in classrooms, but we are not involved in scheduling them in other spaces. Departments may handle non-classroom requests either through University Scheduling or through the venue directly," she explained in an email.

Recke noted that there is currently a shortage of classrooms for precepts. Lately, departments have been receiving notices from the Registrar about precept times that are in high demand.

"We have some classrooms owned by the history department where I book some precepts, but by no means could [those classrooms] cover them all," she explained.

Recke added that the time lag between scheduling precepts and being assigned a room is also part of the reason why Recke was assigning precept locations herself in the first place.

If she had been aware of other eating clubs' precept room availability, Recke noted that she would have contacted them as well. University Spokesperson Martin Mbugua said the University does not know if other clubs on the Street currently host precepts.