Description: Reporting to the Head of Summer Colleges (HSC) and the Residential Directors (RDs), the Assistant Residential Director for Butteries & Catering (ARD - BC) is responsible for overseeing the operation of the butteries in the Summer Colleges. The ARD - BC maintains the buttery spaces, develops a menu, coordinates ordering supplies, and manages buttery staff to ensure an engaging and lively atmosphere for residents of the Summer Colleges. There are typically two or three butteries open in the Summer Colleges. The ARD - BC is also responsible for all food and drink ordered and stored for YSS events and participates broadly in the residential life program of the Summer Colleges. This position gives the ARD - BC the opportunity to work alongside the Residential Directors in their work, gaining experience that will be valuable in a potential future role as a Residential Director or in similar leadership/management positions. The ARD - BC is expected to regularly check on the operation of the butteries but is not expected to attend entire buttery shifts. However, the ARD – BC is encouraged to work one buttery shift each week, alternating residential colleges, to demonstrate leadership and maintain an intimate knowledge of the butteries’ operations and workflows.
Responsibilities:
- Buttery Opening: Ensures a buttery is open every night that classes are in session. At least two butteries should be open in Session B.
- Payments: Handles payments and trains staff on transactions and coordinates with others who may need to use the payment system.
- Training: Trains and monitors members of the Summer Colleges staff who work in the buttery on safe food preparation and safe appliance use.
- Supervision and Scheduling: Supervises staff during shifts and creates a schedule to ensure coverage, coordinating shift scheduling with the RDs to avoid conflicts with other staff duties and nights off.
- Buttery Provisioning: Orders, receives, and stores food and supplies needed to stock the buttery using YSS institutional accounts and coordinating with Yale Dining wherever possible. The ARD – BC will often need help with bringing deliveries into the butteries and should schedule deliveries for times when there are staff in the Summer Colleges office to help.
- Summer Colleges Event Catering: Orders, receives, and stores food and supplies needed for YSS events by using YSS institutional accounts and coordinating with Yale Dining wherever possible.
- Cleanliness: Maintains the cleanliness and condition of the buttery during working hours and at the end of the night. If the buttery is used outside of the normal operating hours for special events, the ARD-BC should coordinate clean up with the lead of the special event.
- Menu: Plans the buttery menu, which includes a “manager’s special” food event or menu item at least once every week that classes are in session.
- Buttery Facilities: Conducts a thorough walkthrough of the buttery at the beginning of the summer and creates an inventory of buttery items borrowed from the residential colleges, as well as a thorough cleaning of the butteries at the end of the summer, ensuring that they are left in excellent condition. Takes responsibility for buttery keys.
- Off-Campus Trips: Lead YSS off-campus trips as the Yale purchasing card holder.
- Policies and Conduct: Follows all Yale Summer Session and University policies and models exemplary behavior as a member of the Summer Colleges community.
- Leadership: Serves as a member of the Summer Colleges leadership team, assisting an RD in their duties with a Summer Counselor group.
- Residential Director Assistance: Assists residential directors in their duties, such as on-call, office, and curfew duties, not more than several times per week.
- Assistant Residential Director Backstopping: Sometimes, other ARDs need extra help, and the ARDs are expected to pitch in in those cases.
- Other Duties: May perform other duties as assigned.
Preferred Experience: Prior food service and supervisory experience required. Prior experience working in a buttery is highly preferred. Prior experience working for Yale Summer Session Summer Colleges is preferred.
Required Education and Experience: Any currently enrolled Yale undergraduate or graduate student in good academic standing or any Yale alumnus is eligible to apply. Applicants must be authorized to work in the United States. Yale College alumni who studied at Yale on a student visa should proactively check with the Office of International Students & Scholars about their eligibility for employment in this role.
The ideal candidate will have spent at least two years in a residential college. Applicants should be mature students who enjoy working with others and who feel committed to the intellectual and social values of residential college life. The job also requires resourcefulness, integrity, creativity, good judgment, and energy. Previous YSS counseling experience and food service experience is a plus.
Compensation: The Assistant Residential Director for Butteries & Catering is given free room and board for the orientation period and the ten weeks of the program (approximate value of $8,460), plus a tuition reduction for the equivalent of one summer course credit (value of $5,480). If the ARD - BC decides not to enroll in a summer course, this tuition reduction cannot be converted into a stipend. The ARD - BC will also receive a stipend of $3,875.
Additional Information: The ARD - BC will be expected to begin the training and planning work for this position during the month of May, after the conclusion of final exams and before YSS Summer Colleges staff arrive on campus.
Summer Colleges staff must attend mandatory training sessions before the summer classes begin, and must be on campus at Yale by 4:00 p.m., Thursday, May 21, 2026 for the start of training. Training starts on Thursday evening and is held all day on Friday and Saturday, ending with the first move-in of counselees on Sunday. This training cannot be missed, made up, or sacrificed due to conflicts with other programs’ commitments or training sessions. Inability to make the training sessions will result in the forfeiture of the position. Many graduation events at Yale and other schools fall during this period; please ensure you are available for the entirety of the training prior to applying. Summer Colleges staff duties continue through Sunday, August 2, 2026.
To be effective in their work, Summer Colleges staff should be familiar with the academic, dormitory, and dining hall regulations of Yale Summer Session. The Summer Colleges staff pledge to uphold these regulations and ensure that Summer Session students comply with them as well. This obligation is especially strong with regard to monitoring the protection of personal and university property, the residents’ right to safety and quiet, and the legal control of alcohol and other drugs.
Each session includes an all-hands-on-deck event, which all Summer Colleges staff must attend unless it falls on their assigned weekend off. Session B Transition Weekend is also considered a major weekend and requires full staff participation. In addition, all Summer Colleges staff must be on campus for the mandatory All-Staff Meeting each Sunday night; this meeting must be attended in person. Weekend-off assignments are determined by the RDs based on counselor preferences and overall program needs. All Summer Colleges staff must be in residence during registration, move-in, and move-out periods
Summer Colleges staff may only take one course per each five-week Session. Any more coursework may only be undertaken with the written permission of the HSC.
General Conduct Statement: Yale Summer Session is an academic community dedicated to the advancement of learning and abides by similar guidelines detailed by Yale College’s Undergraduate Regulations as follow: 1) All staff and students should be committed to protecting free expression and peaceful dissent and to preserving mutual respect and charitable relations among all members of the Summer Session community. 2) Physical restriction, coercion, or intimidation of any member of the YSS community is contrary to the basic principles of the University. 3) Violations of these principles may result in immediate and permanent separation from Yale Summer Session.