Before I went on my Semester at Sea, I scoured the web for answers to all the questions racing through my head. I found a lot of good information on pages set up by former students--what field trips to take, what kind of film, how much money, etc. But I found not even one page for us--the Resident Directors. In hopes of remedying that situation for future RD's, I have put together this site. If you are a future RD type, feel free to drop an email with any unanswered questions, or if you are a past RD and want to share your own advice, feel free to drop a note as well. For answers to general questions (such as those noted above), go back a page and check out some student FAQ's and advice, under links.
1. How
was training?
2. What is a
typical day like?
3. How is duty
structured?
4. Aside from
desk duty, what are commitments while in port?
5. What can you
tell me about being a Trip or Bus Leader?
6. What is TBA
Day?
7.
How does payment and other monetary transactions occur?
8. Anything you
brought that you didn't need or didn't brought but wanted?
9. Any final
words of wisdom for someone planning on being an RD in the future?
1. How was training?
For us, I believe training was quite different than it usally goes. Due to circumstance, we had the majority of our training days at a hotel rather than on the ship. Unfortunately, most of our work--such as organizing the office, finding the sports and recreation supplies, making door decorations, etc.--occurs on the ship. So we had a pretty relaxing first few days of training before we got to the ship, and what seemed like a frenetic 25 hour day pace once we got to the ship. Because of that, we were not completely ready for the students when they came in. I turned that to my advantage, though, and actually got to know some of my residents because they were helping me create bulletin boards and decorate the halls on that first day. As for the general staff training sessions, they were typical of what you’d probably expect.
2. What is a typical day like?
I think a lot of people would give the quick answer of "there's no such thing as a typical day" but I disagree. Once we got into a groove and knew what we were doing, things flowed pretty much the same way each day. I usually got up in time for CORE, which everyone is expected to attend and runs from 9:20 until 10:40 or so. Because I was Communications RD, I then advised the SeaWatch News on B days up until lunch time. I usually used the time before lunch on A days for administrivia--doing bulletin boards or signs for the Sea, submitting information to the Dean’s Memo (daily schedule of events and info), etc. After lunch, we had a student life staff meeting at 1:15. This usually ran between an hour and 2 1/2 hours--they got shorter as time wore on. In fact, for the second half of the voyage, we went to staff meetings every other day. This did not really give us too much extra time, however, because our activities started to take more and more of that time--for me the yearbook started taking more time, for others it was the Students of Service auction or Ambassadors Ball, etc. Rest of afternoon (after staff meetings and before dinner) I usually reserved for my personal time--playing guitar, writing in journal, sitting out on deck, etc.
After dinner, I usually had a few meetings each night. Some of these were of my own groups--yearbook and movie committee, while others were called by administration--for trip leaders, duty desk, etc. Every few weeks there was usually a function in the evening hosted by the Deans or the Captain--those were good for the free margaritas. At 9:15 each night, I was down to get the movie started in the theater. I then either stuck around to see the flick or, more likely, I went up the Union to check on life there, and maybe play some cards. After bar hours ended, I usually went up to St. George’s Watch with fellow staff, to process the day or make plans for the next port. Naturally other RD’s structured their days differently--the administration RD spent much more time in the office, etc. It seems like a full day,and it is, but there is a lot of free time between meetings and such, if you know how to make use of it.
3. How is duty structured?
We had several types of duty, so I’ll try and make this simple:
Typical RD duty - We had at least one RD on duty from 2pm until 11pm each day while at sea. This was split into an afternoon shift of 2-6pm and evening shift of 6pm-11pm. During the afternoon shift, RD’s were expected to be in the Student Life Office from 3-5pm, to check out games for students and handle any concerns. The evening duty RD was expected to be in the office from 8-10pm for the same functions. Before and after office hours, RD’s were expected to make a round of the ship to make sure all was well. We had two RD’s serve the evening duty for the first half of the voyage, but cut back to one RD per evening for the second half. At 11pm, the security officers came on duty and were on-call through the night.
Union duty - Our two Union RD’s alternated each day with one being in the union to oversee the bar hours from 9-11pm each night. The other six of us rotated being a second presence in the Union during these hours each night. In other words, each night in the union one of the two Union RD’s was there alongside one of the six non-Union RD’s. The two RD’s in the Union 9-11pm should not be the RD’s on general duty (because the duty RD was supposed to be in the office). Confused yet?
Desk Duty - Every hour that we were docked, one faculty or staff member sat at the duty desk near the gangway to monitor comings and goings and respond to emergencies. Each day there were three eight hour shifts (beginning at 7am, 3pm, and 11pm). Each RD served three of these duties during the course of the voyage. If I’m not mistaken, my duties for example came the third night in Malaysia, the second morning in Israel, and the fourth day in Italy.
4. Aside from desk duty, what are commitments while in port?
Unless you are a trip or bus leader, none! Go have fun!
5. What can you tell me about being a Trip or Bus Leader?
Trip leaders are faculty or staff members who act as Semester at Sea representatives on the various field trips. If a trip has more than one busload of students, there will be an additional Bus Leader to oversee the second bus. It is the duty of these leaders to make sure the group leads the ship on time and that the tour guides are sticking to the itinerary (which they are, cuz they want repeat business). You also have to keep track of the students, to make sure you aren't stranding them anywhere.
A lot of people like it, a lot don't. I found that I liked leading the large trips but not the small single day trips. Since the day trips are pretty inexpensive, it didn't seem worth the hassle of carrying around a clipboard for most of the day just to save a few bucks. Much better to be free to wander about and be the last person to a bus instead of the first, or to leave a trip if you want (trip leaders can not leave trips if they want). With the larger trips, however, you save several hundred dollars by being a leader and it really is not difficult, since the RDs are pretty well known and respected by the students (it is tiring, but I think it's the traveling that is the work and not the trip leading). For the most part, the tour guides take care of everything else.
They ask you to sign up for, and pay for, the field trips you are interested in before they select the trip leaders, so you will be reimbursed if selected to lead. After completing the trip, there is a short evaluation to fill out and return to the field office. They will then work with the Burser to credit your shipfunds account.
The best trip leader deal I got was the student exchanges in Japan. We were actually met on the ship by our hosts, and we split into small groups right then, so my duties ended about twenty minutes after they started. And for that, I had my visit paid for.
6. What is TBA Day?
TBA days are days without classes. Other than that, the days are mostly business as usual except there are no bar hours in the union. Recreation schedules can still go on, movies can be shown, etc. I made use of another TBA day by collecting videotapes of football games various residents had and providing the ship a Sunday afternoon of games. Our Recreation RD used another TBA day for a day of sport tournaments--ping pong, basketball, etc.
Personally, I don't think TBA is a good name--it makes people think there will be a big announcement about what will happen that day. Really, it's just a day off from classes.
7. How does payment and other monetary transactions occur?Your salary is directly deposited into your own bank account, but there is a way to access some of that money without going to an ATM. Because SAS knows that you are getting that money, they are inclined to believe that a personal check from you will be covered. So if you go to the Bursar, you can get travel checks in return for a personal check. I think the amount you can get is up to the amount of your paycheck, but I’m not sure. So when my cash was running low I gave them a check for $300 and in return they gave me $300 in travel checks. The Purser, then, can cash travel checks for you, I believe up to $100 a day. It seemed silly picking up the travel checks at the Bursar and carrying them to the Purser to get cash, but it works.Staff members receive a $700 travel allowance which is paid in travel checks from the Bursar during one of the first few days at sea. At this time, you also have to set up your ShipFunds account with either a credit card number or $500. So again, I had to take the travel checks from the Bursar to the Purser. ShipFunds is how you pay for anything on the ship--items at the bookstore or snack bar, tipping your steward, etc.I paid for all my trips before I left, and since I was a trip leader on two big trips (Beijing and Taj Mahal), I got half of that credited to my ship funds accounts, so after my initial deposit of $500 I didn’t have to put down anything more. In fact, I had a pretty sizeable credit at the end of the trip. If you’ve set up your shipfunds with a credit card your card will be credited. It was nice having set it up with the travel checks because I got my refund in cash a few days before the end of the voyage.
8. Anything you brought that you didn't need or didn't bring but wanted?
The big thing I brought but didn’t really need was supplies. They didn’t tell us what was available for use in the student life office, but they do have a pretty good supply of markers, scissors, construction paper, balloons, crayons, etc. During training you should be able to take stock of what you need (such as masking tape) and buy them off the ship (and get reimbursed by SAS).
One thing a lot of people wished they had brought were videos of favorite movies and tv shows. Since the student life collection is pretty sparse, the movie committee relied a lot on the students who did have videos. If you have a favorite movie, bring it along.
I asked another RD what she would have bought and she mentioned a laptop, two credit cards (instead of one) and a debit card. I had all those and yes, they served me well. In a number of countries, people asked me for pens (yes--even the cheapie bic pens), so bring a bunch and make a lot of friends. I would have brought a few more gifts, such as t-shirts from your college, because you meet a lot of people in a lot of countries where gift-giving is common. Maybe bring a map of the U.S. or the world to show people where you live.
One thing I did not bring was money for each of the countries we visited. They recommend gettting a small amount like $20-30 for each country before you go. But I went on my way with $0 for each country, and I did not have any problem finding places to exchange. If you don’t have time to change money beforehand, don’t worry about it. I didn’t.
9. Any final words of wisdom for someone planning on doing the RD thing in the future?
Because this is such an atypical residence life position, I would say be careful of your expectations. You may think because you have a Master’s degree in student development, that you will be given more responsibility and autonomy than a first year RA, but this is not always the case. Also, you may learn quickly that SAS is well organized in some areas, but not at all in other areas. This may be the result of having completely new staff aboard each semester, but we did feel that at times we were truly building a university from the ground up. This was frustrating since many of us had an expectation of stepping into an established position and being given the opportunity to run with it. Instead, we found day one (and throughout the voyage) that we were responsible for things we didn't think we were responsible for and that we were not responsible for things we felt we should have been responsible for, all while trying to get to know our residents. If you expect it be the greatest experience ever, you’ll probably be disappointed but if you don’t expect it to be the greatest thing you will ever experience, you will probably be pleasantly surprised.
Do you have a question or advice to add to the FAQ? While I can't guarantee that all questions will be answered, I do encourage you to keep trying. Operators are standing by.