Many of the coaches at Wabash College have dual roles on campus, such as coaching other sports, helping with admissions or setting up events and fundraisers for students. Coach Steve House described his job as doing all these things.
Coach House was called into the Student Senate last night so he could speak on the general purpose and duties of the Director of Student Activities. During his short speech to the Senate, he mentioned among his duties and responsibilities planning and organizing all the Freshman Orientation work projects, the Red Book planners, College Bowl and of course the National Act.
“There is a great deal of time and planning which goes into this job,” House said. “I recognize that time is a thing greatly appreciated by all Wabash men, so I like to think that I help out by doing this job.”
The National Act is considered one of the largest and most important duties Coach House exercises in his role. According to Chandler Troy ‘08, a member of the SCAC, House spends upwards of between twenty and thirty hours per week from about four to six weeks before the National Act actually happens.
“With regard to picking the National Act,” Troy said, “The odds are very slim you’ll get exactly who you want. We have to have the date open for Chadwick, so do they when they’re touring and they have to be within our budget.”
The duties for setting up the National Act include, but are not limited to, contacting groups, booking the group, organizing set up and take down of the stage area and organizing whatever else the group may want for their backstage purposes.
“Without Coach House, there would be no National Act,” Troy said.
The Senate invited House to speak on Tuesday night for a reason. They are very curious about where their money goes. They want to know how it is being spent and how much of it is buying something worthwhile. Coach House receives a few thousand dollars per semester from the Senate for his job as Director of Student Activities.
“It’s hard to say how the Senate feels about funding the Director of Student Activities until it’s brought forward as an issue,” Student President Jesse James ’08 said. “Senate is very curious as to where its money goes in every facet of its uses. They want to make sure it is properly and efficiently spent.”
No issue has been made yet except for calling Coach House into Senate. Now that he has spoken, there may be issues brought to the table. The issues may (or may not) include discussion of House’s stipend for performing the job or discussing his role as becoming more directly connected with the Senate so they know their money is being well spent.