We had graduate resident tutors - a grad student (and his/her spouse if applicable) living in an apartment - one for each floor or entry of each dorm. They were supposed to be there to counsel people, help resolve disputes, make sure people weren't breaking laws or school rules (esp. alcohol), organize study breaks, etc. They got free rent and a stipend (nice deal when you're a poor starving grad student
).
The school picked out the potential GRT's, then each floor/entry's members interviewed candidates and picked their GRT - so we had some say in who we got (say, someone who liked cats so he wouldn't report someone's cat
- we were not allowed pets).
My freshman year, my floor's GRT was writing his thesis and was totally unavailable. In everyone's opinion he should have resigned... After that, we had a very nice couple. The advantage of a couple is that one or the other of them is generally available... if the student has to go write a thesis or study for their qualifying exams, the spouse is generally around.