I’m finding this thread very interesting if only because I seem to be of two participants who actually knows people who have done dorm crew.
There’s so many ways to respond to the outrage. I think it was @blossom who noted how wonderful the FA is at Harvard. I can’t rave enough about the quality of the free (and paid) enrichment, research, and service programs, but instead I will respond to the assumption that students learn nothing in dorm crew.
Large scale cleaning involves skills, but one reason my kid did it for four years is because it quickly gave them supervisor responsibility with more pay. Someone had to stay on top of things, teach freshmen routines, and coordinate among buildings. Yah, it was not rocket science (that was the summer fellowships). Still she wasn’t bored, and she came home and taught me some nifty cleaning tricks ala hints from Heloise?