RPS remembers student advocate’s contributions

After years of serving students at IU as associate director of Residence Life, Thomas Hennessy died Nov. 27 at 82 years old.

From the early 1960s until 1992, he worked with Residence Life, a precursor to Residential Programs and Services, at times serving as acting director.

Some described “Dr. Tom” as a man who loved his family, his Irish heritage, football,
students and God, said Nancy Lorenz, who was a student in the 1970s and is now a development officer with Residential Programs and Services.

Hennessy also served as adviser to the Residence Hall Association, the student voice for the residence halls.

He strongly believed an institution should honor student voices, said Sarah Nagy, associate director for student involvement and orientation at RPS.

He was an “active adviser,” staying at weekly RHA presidential council meetings until 2 a.m. and then going to work the next morning, Lorenz said.

She said he was always there for students, and he’d show students how to get through the red tape of the University, as well as the local and federal government to bring their ideas to life. He’d never say an idea was stupid, but he didn’t do students’ projects for them, Lorenz said.

Senior Eric Gibson, president of the RHA, said without Hennessy’s level of involvement, there would be little student voice within the residence halls. Gibson said Hennessy influenced many people who were successful in life, and that’s what keeps him going in RHA.

“The last thing you want to do is let those people down,” Gibson said.

Hennessy was an advocate for students and believed in their rights, Nagy said.
The ’60s and ’70s were a time of big change in the University – student rights and freedoms were expanding.

Lorenz said the University acted in the place of parents, with curfews for women. Men, even fathers, weren’t allowed on women’s floors, Lorenz said. She said the thinking was if the women were in at night, the men would be, too. Also, resident assistants were allowed to enter rooms without cause.

During his time at IU, all these rules fell by the wayside, with a greater emphasis on legal rights for students, she said. There were also experimental classes and business opportunities for students within the residence halls.

“The bottom line was students wanted to be involved in their education and residence hall,” Lorenz said.

He advised students who wanted to set up stores in the residence halls to sell everything from Coca-Cola to cigarettes.

He also advised the students who set up RHA Student Services, where students rented fans, fridges, combination microwave-fridges and lofts, Lorenz said.
Hennessy’s concern for students continued well after his retirement.

Nagy wasn’t a student with him, but he’d visit regularly until his health became too poor. She said he was always interested in what students were doing as well as unobtrusively making sure she had their interests at heart.

He was instrumental in the RHA Alumni Association, where former residence hall leaders could keep in touch.

John Hobson, senior vice president and chief operating officer of the IU Alumni Association, was an active student leader in his residence hall in the late ’60s. He’d meet with Hennessy to discuss finances. Hobson said he would even see Hennessy at IU football games. Hennessy was a season ticket holder.

“Tom,” Hobson said, “just touched a lot of student lives while at Residence Life here at IU.”