Next year, Mr. Pat Dennehy will replace Mr. Will Morris as Director of Residential Life. Mr. Dennehy, who currently lives in Tobey House, has worked as the Associate Director of Admission for his first seven years at Choate.
Mr. Dennehy has also served as the Head Coach of Boys Varsity Hockey at Choate for 17 years, which he will be stepping down from to prioritize his new position. “Mr. Dennehy cares about you a lot. As a hockey coach, he wants to bring out the best in you,” said hockey player Charlie Aronov ’21. He continued, “He looks for you to succeed both in the classroom and on the ice, and will do anything in his power to help you succeed.”
Mr. Morris, who is Head Coach of the Boys Varsity Squash Team, served as the form dean for the Class of 2014 and is currently the Head of House of Tenney House. “Mr. Morris is one of the most diligent house advisors I’ve had here. He’s always coming in and having a chat with us in the dorm,” said Finn McGaan ’22, a resident in Tenney.
Varun Ramamurthi ’22, who also lives in Tenney, echoed this sentiment saying, “In dorm meetings and on Zoom, he was very attentive to the needs and wants of our community.”
As Director of Residential Life, Mr. Morris helped create the all-gender housing program and implemented the use of Reach, the School’s electronic sign-out system. Mr. Morris also enacted the tiered lottery system when determining housing for students. “By tiered housing I mean where students have the opportunity to come back to their house for their 10th and 11th grade year if they chose to do so. I think those have all been positive changes,” Mr. Morris said.
Over spring break, Mr. Morris played a crucial role in allowing, for the first time, a cohort of students to remain on campus to accomodate for Covid-19 travel restrictions.
When asked about why he decided to step down from his position as Director of Residential Life, Mr. Morris said, “There is a kind of regular turnover through director positions, so I think that’s important. And for me, between the three years I spent as a form dean for the Class of 2014, and then seven years as Director for Residential Life, I feel good about the 10 years of service that I gave to the Student Life Office.”
Mr. Dennehy is excited to take on what he sees as a challenging role. “If we are making shifts down the road in certain areas in residential life, having both students and faculty advisers buy into those things is going to be a challenge,” he said. “People don’t always like to change.”
One of Mr. Dennehy’s goals is for teachers to feel a sense of pride about advising. “If we can cultivate strong relationships with our advisees, and there is trust there, it makes the whole experience better.”
