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Spring 2009, Vol. 5, No. 1 | Back Issues
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Employee Spotlight
Meet the Housing Department
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Deb Deering, Cindy MacDonald, Suzanne Livingstone, Susan Barnes, Walter Gonsalves Jr., Noreen McNamara, Herb McAdams, Jessica Berrios, Kurt Fuglister, Eileen McDonald, Lynn Ware, Mai Wah Shum, Crystal Santiago and Catherine Hannigan.
Not pictured: Grace Chen, Darren Salo and Barbara Stackhouse
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Director of Housing and Conferences Eileen McDonald came to MBL last fall from the Hilton Hotel in Mystic, CT, where she was general manager. We talked with Eileen and some of her staff, including housing coordinator Deb Deering, assistant housing coordinator Suzanne Livingstone, front office assistant Cindy MacDonald, and head housekeeper Noreen McNamara on a recent morning. As we chatted, it became clear that summer was heavy on their minds.
Q. What is your mission?
A. The MBL Office of Housing and Conferences maintains a variety of comfortable, attractive, and affordable housing units for students, faculty, and scientists involved in our research and educational programs. Our main mission is to maximize all of our housing options to ensure we meet the needs of our visitors and the goals of MBL.
Q. How are you getting ready for the MBL’s influx of spring and summer visitors?
A. We are processing applications, setting up rates, updating literature, and, on the housekeeping end, prepping cottages, dorms, apartments, and other housing facilities. Though there are only 800 beds available, the projected number of guests who will stay in MBL housing this spring/summer is more than 2,000! That is a lot of housing to coordinate, beds to prepare, and cars to park.
Q. What is your biggest challenge?
A. Getting people into the right housing. We try to accommodate everyone with a bed. Our accomodations are very basic. We offer a bed to sleep in. Period. Though we sometimes receive special requests and are always willing to accommodate handicapped guests with prior notice, rooms are so tightly assigned, and turnover is so quick, there is very little wiggle room.
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Where They All Stay
MBL summer guests stay in one of the following housing facilities:
Swope Dormitory
Capacity: 168
All rooms sleep two
Drew House (summer only)
Capacity: 16 (men only)
7 double rooms; 2 single rooms
Ebert Hall
Capacity: 99
Double rooms, triple rooms, single rooms, and two-bedroom suites
Brick Apartment Building
Capacity: 57
6 two-bedroom suites;
3 efficiency apartments;
3 one-bedroom apartments; 6 two-bedroom apartments
David House
(summer only)
Capacity: 16 (men only)
7 double rooms; 2 single rooms
Veeder House
(summer only)
Capacity: 14 (women only)
4 double rooms; 2 triple rooms
Crane House
Capacity: 5 (families only)
3 bedroom home
Smith Cottage
Capacity: 5 (families only)
3 bedroom home
Memorial Circle Cottages
(summer only)
43 two-bedroom cottages
with lofts, each sleeps 6
Devil’s Lane Cottages
(summer only)
23 two-bedroom cottages
with lofts, each sleeps 6;
2 two-bedroom cottages,
each sleeps 4
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Q. What about pets?
A. Pets are allowed in certain cottages, with prior approval and registration with the Housing Office. Pets that aren’t allowed include: monkeys, tarantulas, pythons, and mice, although there have been occasional attempts to smuggle these animals into MBL housing.
Q. How do you turn the rooms and cottages over quickly?
A. We rely on our dedicated staff of eight year-round employees and two summer housekeepers to do the arduous job of turning over those 2,000 beds. The
10 AM check out and 2 pm check in gives us a very narrow window. Our housekeepers must work very efficiently to meet the challenge. We are proud of how well we do. Our philosophy is ‘just do it.’
Q. What is unique about MBL visitors?
A. Because students and scientists from all over the world stay here, the housing department has to be culturally sensitive and able to communicate with people for whom English is not their first language and for whom, sometimes, the American way is foreign. The staff enjoys forming friendships with people from different cultures—diversity makes our jobs more interesting.
Q. Do you get to know people over the years?
A. We enjoy repeaters—individuals and families who stay in MBL housing year after year. These repeat visitors infuse familiarity and rhythm into our jobs. We enjoy watching their families grow up, returning each year a little older. It’s fun to see children of scientists come back to the MBL to work at summer jobs.
Q, What are some of the rewards of the job?
A. The best part about working in the housing office comes when, after a long winter of planning and preparing, the busy season begins and we see the results of our hard work. It’s like working on a giant puzzle where each piece has to fit nicely in order for the next piece to lay flat. We’re happiest when all the various pieces fit and things run smoothly for our guests and for us. We are grateful when the system works. Sometimes people even send appreciation gifts like chocolates, flowers, t-shirts, baked goods, thank you notes, and did we mention CHOCOLATE?!
Q. How do you stay sane when the season is in full swing?
A. Once the summer gets rolling, there is no rest for the housing staff. The MBL is a virtual revolving door from May through September and the staff has to juggle many things beyond room assignments and changing beds, including dispensing parking stickers and visitors’ passes, fielding phone calls from lost travelers, providing information and maps about the area, directing people to local restaurants and landmarks, managing roommate problems, and harboring lost and found items.
Summers here are hectic, but fun. We try to remember to laugh a lot and to enjoy the perks of our jobs: being surrounded by the profound natural beauty of Woods Hole, being close to the Café (for coffee and company), and watching students, children, and jugglers play on the Swope lawn on summer evenings.
The Collecting Net is an employee newsletter published by the Communications Office. Comments and suggestions are welcome. Call (508) 289-7423 or e-mail us at
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