Senior Paul Schulze has been a Community Leader (CL) in Curtis Hall since his sophomore year at Colgate University. Every residence hall, apartment or townhouse, whether on or off campus, has a CL. Their main goal is to establish communities in the residence halls but also to act as a bridge between students and the Residential Life and campus resources by identifying potential issues and concerns. You also may have seen them host programming events for their floors, which can range from snacks to movies to arts and crafts activities.
What prompted Schulze to become a CL? While the job has many benefits, such as free housing and a guaranteed single room, Schulze chose to join due to negative experiences his friends had during his first year at Colgate.
“For me, my freshman year, I had several friends who had really terrible CLs. One of my friends was sort of relentlessly bullied by some people on his floor, and when I asked him ‘Why don’t you talk to the CL?’ he said the CL was one of the people,” Schulze said. “And so I guess I joined because I figured if I can be — even if I’m not amazing — not terrible, then that’s some number of people who don’t have a truly awful CL.”
Schulze assures that these CLs are long gone, and there has been a clear improvement in terms of community building thanks to the CLs.
“The current CL staff we have are all wonderful — especially in Ciccone Commons, since I work with them more closely. Everyone’s amazing,” Schulze said.
When asked about the pros and cons of being a CL, he primarily praised the job, highlighting the great social and leadership aspects of it.
“There’s definitely a sense of accomplishment, and it’s work I really believe in,” Schulze said. “You get to help people, and you get to help people by knowing things, which for me personally is something I really enjoy doing, and you’re sort of empowered to create a community like that. Especially if you like to program events, now you have a budget and advertising […]. You have a natural way to reach out, and you can meet a lot of people and practice your social skills.”
However, Schulze also pointed out a clear difference between being a CL and any other campus job a student may be interested in, stressing how a CL is almost always “on the job.”
“It’s not like any other job where you clock into work and then clock out of work,” Schulze said. “There is a CL on call, who isn’t always you […] but even if you’re not doing rounds through the buildings, you could see a policy violation, and now you have work to do.”
Regardless of the long hours, Schulze has remained a CL throughout his time at Colgate because he is genuinely passionate about creating a safe and comfortable environment for his residents.
“I stuck with it because I found out I really love the job,” Schulze said. “It’s nice as a CL to feel empowered to create the kind of community you want to see, or that you would want as a freshman, and it’s empowering being able to help people in the way that you would hope someone would help you.”
Overall, Schulze encourages anyone who is interested in being a CL to apply for the position, but only if they truly want to take on the responsibilities and would genuinely enjoy a leadership role in their community. Schulze also recommends truly taking the time to get to know your CLs, emphasizing that CLs are here to help students and are a valuable resource at Colgate. He stressed that the residential communities are only what we make of them — that if you want the community on your floor to be strong and supportive, you must act to make it so.
