Christian konrad, the men of Themis & Xenius!
Christian Konrad is the Campus and Student Services Manager at César Ritz in Brig. Responsible for the new dorms on campus he supervised the opening of the facility and the arrival of its new tenants.
What was your background before taking up this position?
CK: I was educated as a chef. However I’ve worked for “César Ritz” Colleges for almost 15 years in various departments. Through the past few years I’ve moved from the kitchen, to teaching and now to Student Services and Operations manager. When I was asked if I’d be interested in coming to Brig, I thought it would be a challenge, so now I’m here!
Being the Campus and Student Services manager is a new experience for you, what difficulties did you face during the dorms construction?
CK: I think the biggest difficulty was that the timeframe was very tight. So everything, as in a lot of other construction projects, had to be done at the last minute or wasn’t quite finished when we opened. This meant that there were some constraints for the first students. I obviously would have liked to have more time to prepare, but in the end I think everything worked out very well and the feedback from the students was positive when they moved in.
Did you get any help and support from staff and students as well?
Yes, I got a lot of help from our School Director here, Mr. Gutzwiller, he provided a lot of moral support. In addition, the first students who moved in were very understanding, even though there was still a lot of noise and other minor problems, such as things missing or not working properly. The students never complained and they all accepted that this was a special situation. To compensate for the inconvenience, we organised some special things for them. Their cooperation was great and it made my job much easier. The atmosphere was always very positive and I would like to thank them for their support.
What was the best part of the dorms experience?
I think it has to be when the last worker moves out of the building and we move in, properly. No more painters, no more electricians, no more heating technicians. As Student Services manager, I’d like to be able to concentrate on just that, student services, rather than having to deal with technical and organisational problems related to the buildings. It’s very time consuming having to make phone calls here and there every day and having to chase people up to get jobs done. This is valuable time which I would rather spend focusing on the students and their activities.
Describe the dorms facilities?
All the rooms are single, with private facilities. In addition, there is a large reception area, a little coffee bar open from seven to midnight, where you can get a coffee, have a snack or a glass of wine in the evening. We also have a very well equipped gym which is well used by the students. I think they really appreciate the gym and the quality of the equipment because it’s of a similar standard to the installations that you would find in somewhere like the
What were the students’ first impressions?
I think in general everyone was very positive. Obviously, as previously students had to share a room, the rooms were a bit bigger. The single rooms are therefore a bit smaller but everyone has their own shower and bathroom, and the beds are 40cm larger than before, so obviously more comfortable. In terms of the facilities they have the same for one person that they had to share before. This means students now have their own TV and fridge, so the feedback about the rooms has been very good. I think in general the students appreciate their privacy, with the advantage of being close to the public areas. If they want to meet or to study they have four study rooms so they can still do things together. In summer we’ll have a barbeque area and a little garden outside. They’ll also be a basketball court and a volleyball court. The real advantage is there is now space within the dorms to meet up with friends, however the single rooms allow students the choice to spend some time by themselves.
Now that the dorms are finished, what is your new project for the year?
So now the building has been completed, I would like to get all the activities up and finished, for example, we can’t yet show a movie. After that, the next big project is for the Beijing Olympics, to participate with 15 to 20 students and be part of the House of Switzerland.
I had a long meeting yesterday and we hope that by the end of February we will have the final selection of students. We still have to select the catering company and have four interviews lined up for that. We have already pre-selected 25 students but we will still need to see them again before making the final choice. There are still 169 days to the opening of the House of Switzerland, but we need to ensure that the students get the visas, their health insurance, complete their training – so this will be the next big project and then of course something else will come up after that!
