Duties of a RoomTsar
A room tsar is appointed for each room through the desk tsar. Room tsars are
listed on the
Student Locator
directly above each room map. Our graduate student desk space is spread over a
large portion of Olsson Hall including space on each of the first 3 floors. By
and large the position of room tsar is a hierarchical division of labor for the
task of keeping these desk allocations straight. Hence, the room tsar acts much
as the desk tsar except he/she acts in the limited capacity constrained to his/her room.
The current room tsars are:
| Room |
Tsar |
| 227 |
Shaun Hutton |
| 228 |
|
| 229 |
Joe Carnahan |
| 231 |
Yuanyuan Song |
| 233 |
Jun Feng |
| 235 |
Jeremy Sheaffer |
| 236 |
Nathanael Paul |
| 237 |
Wei Le |
| 238 |
Chris Taylor |
| 018 |
Tibor Horvath |
| Small |
Patrick Graydon |
Below follows a list of duties required of each room tsar.
- Inform the desk tsar of all changes in the desk allocation of your room that
you make or are informed of.
- Periodically make a walk through of your room to verify that your desk assignments are
up to date (i.e. none of your residents have vacated their desk and not told you or the
desktsar). Your desk assignments should be consistent with those shown on the
Student Locator.
- If you find any vacated desk that you were unaware of, email the resident and make
sure that he she has indeed vacated. Find out what the situation is. Email the desktsar
with your findings.
- If the student locator does not accurately reflect the assignments in your room email
the desktsar immediately to resolve the discrepancy.
- Please do not make desk changes without consulting with the desktsar except in the
case of a resident leaving who has NOT already informed desk tsar of their leaving (as
discussed under voluntary duties). This policy is to avoid both the room tsar and
the desk tsar simultaneously assigning the same desk to two different students. If the
desk in question already appears as free on the
Student Locator
then direct your room resident to request the desk from desktsar using the
Desk Request Form.
- Residents of the room may come to you occasionally regarding issues concerning your room.
Do your best to resolve the issue; contact the desk tsar if assistance is needed in resolving the issue.
In addition to the above listed duties, some room tsars choose to take on the following
tasks. These are above and beyond the call of duty and are always much appreciated.
- When a room resident vacates his/her desk he/she should inform you of this. At this
point, find out from the vacater if he/she has informed the desk tsar that he/she has left.
If so, then you need do nothing (perhaps update your floor diagram). Simply make sure that
this change is reflected on the student locator and if not email desktsar about this (it never
hurts to get a redundant email). If the vacater says he/she has not informed desktsar, you may do the
following:
- Make a judgment call as to whether the vacated space is nice enough to warrant e-mailing
the remaining residents of the room about the vacancy. This will allow them to exercise their
room seniority to claim the desk before I place it in the student locator as free (thus making
it available for all students to request). If your judgment is that the space is not nice
enough (compared to the other spaces in the room) to warrant such an email, then simply send
email to desktsar notifying me of the change and I will make the desk free in the locator and
available for all students to request.
- If your judgment is to send email to the room, do so announcing the newly freed desk.
Carbon copy the email to desktsar so that I will know to hold the desk instead of freeing it
in the locator. In the email, specify a time by which all requests need to be in before the desk will be
assigned or freed (usually a day or two is sufficient).
- If you receive any requests for the desk from the current residents, choose the most
senior request (intra-room seniority is always based on length of stay in the ROOM).
- Let the senior requester know that he/she has obtained the desk and carbon copy to the desktsar.
If more than one request was received, let the others know that the desk was filled by a more senior
requester. If you need help determining length of stay in the room, ask the residents in question.
Any discrepancy as to length of stay should be brought to the attention of the desktsar.
- Some room tsars choose to maintain a room diagram listing the resident of each desk
in the room. This diagram is posted on the entrance of the room to assist others in
finding a student who resides in the room. If the room has more than one entrance,
sometimes the diagram is even modified slightly (i.e. by placing a "you are here"
marker in the appropriate place) to help keep the viewer oriented correctly.
- Finally, Pass the position on (as described below). This is very helpful.
When you wish to get rid of your duties as room tsar (due to graduation, an extended leave,
a heightened personal work load, etc.) please find a replacement among the residents of your
room.
- The position can be held by any resident of the room able and willing to perform the duties.
It is usually best to choose someone who has lived in the room for at least a few months if possible.
- Please explain the intricacies (little they are) of being a room tsar to the new room tsar.
- Point the new room tsar to this Web page.
- If you have maintained a room diagram for the door(s), pass this on to the new room tsar.
- Finally, be sure to let the desk tsar know (via email) about the change of room tsars so that
it can be reflected on the student locator. Please complete this step even if you are unable to
choose a new room tsar.