First-Year Orientation: The Administrators' Domain?

Date rape, chlamydia, depression, suicide, stress.

As past years have demonstrated, the perils of undergraduate life can find their way into the Ivory Tower.

Instances of these and other health and safety concerns which cropped up during the last academic year highlight the question of how to successfully prepare first-years for the challenges ahead.

Enter Orientation Week, a calendar of meetings, information sessions and open houses designed to smooth the way for entering students.

The Freshman Dean's Office (FDO) plans and implements each year's Orientation Week, deciding what events will be held for incoming students and which of them will be mandatory.

Student Involvement

Unlike at many other colleges, Harvard's Orientation Week is planned almost entirely by the administration with little direct participation by current students.

At Brandeis University, in contrast, students run orientation almost entirely.

A group of 10 students makes up the orientation core committee, which begins planning in January for the next fall's orientation.

"The students are the ones who plan and implement the program," says Kristine Carlson Asselin, Brandeis's acting associate director of campus life and the advisor for orientation.

"We're orienting new students, and who better to plan for them than current students?" she says.

Asselin says Brandeis also tries to support entering first-years with approximately 100 student volunteers known as AIDE group leaders (short for Advise, Integrate, Develop and Educate).

The volunteers guide small groups of first--years through orientation--attending most events with them--and serve as counselors and resources for the new students.

AIDE volunteers go through extensive training, Asselin says, including instruction in sensitivity and advising.

At Cornell, the orientation program is also run in large part by students.

The dean's office orchestrates the academic side of orientation, while a student steering committee works on the social and cultural aspects.

Like Brandeis, Cornell has a number of trained orientation counselors who lead small groups of first-years.

The role of an orientation counselor is to meet with first-years and to be available for questions or concerns, says Rebecca M. Sparrow, Cornell's assistant dean of students for new student programs.

"Students have a greater understanding of what's here on campus, and [student input] also ensures that we put on programs that have greater interest to students," Sparrow says.

Doing It Harvard's Way

The campus is dotted with Crimson Key members in red t-shirts; volunteers from student counseling and education groups arrive during orientation; and prefects meet their advisees early on in the week.

But despite the number of upperclass students working on various aspects of orientation, students have little direct influence on the shape of Orientation Week.

The week's calendar lists a plethora of open houses for extracurricular activities, all student-sponsored, but the week's central events remain the province of the administration. And of the week's many options, all of the mandatory events are run by the FDO.

Of the mandatory Orientation Week events, only one, "Building a Safe Community," relies heavily on student input.

The three-hour event, inaugurated last fall, features skits by student counseling and education groups. Topics addressed include personal safety, date rape, sexually transmitted diseases and alcohol abuse.

The health and safety event, which also includes presentations by the Harvard University Police and University Health Services is highly praised by administrators and students alike for its use of students on the planning committee and as presenters.

"This year the peer [education] groups were much more involved than in previous years," says Eric L. Ashley '00, co-director of Project ADD, a peer education group which deals with alcohol and drug issues.

"Student groups...are a great resource for the administration to tap during orientation," he says. "[I]t often seems that first-years listen more to other students than to administrators."

"While the administration could certainly conduct orientation without the student groups, we make the events livelier, more interesting and better heard," Ashley says.

Those on the administrators' side agree with Ashley's assessment.

"It is crucial to have student involvement in a mandatory program for students," says Assistant Dean of the College Karen Avery, who helps plan the event. "They provide an important perspective on what students want and need to know on safety concerns."

"Building a Safe Community" is also responsive to student concerns, planners say.

"Students came to the table, and their feedback was responded to," says Linda J. Frazier, program manager for health promotion and community services in UHS.

"With this program, there's an incredible amount of student input...they're the audience, and so they're the best gauge of [whether we're] getting the message across," she says.

Despite rave reviews for students' contributions to "Building a Safe Community," student involvement in planning other parts of the week minimal.

But Dean of Freshmen Elizabeth Studley Nathans says the academic components of orientation, such as placement tests and departmental advising, would "make it inappropriate for the [week's] program to be run entirely by students."

She notes that Crimson Key representatives, prefects and First-Year Outdoor, Arts and Urban Program leaders provide new students with access to seasoned undergraduates.

Nathan adds that the FDO is responsive to student concerns and solicits orientation suggestions from the First Year Caucus, the Yard Bulletin and through proctors.

Orientation Limitations

Orientation is by its nature limited, deans say, and cannot entirely prepare first-years.

Time constraints and the high number of incoming students make it difficult for deans to give students an introduction to every aspect of the University.

"No orientation program can address any issue to maximum depth," Nathans says. "We are attempting to provide students with an introduction to issues and to sources of information."

Coordinators say they are also worried about information overload.

"We're competing for precious time," says Manager of Health Education to UHS Christine Hollis, who helps plan "Building a Safe Community."

"It would be hard to do more without starting to annoy people," she says.

Unable to address everything. Assistant Dean of Freshmen Sarah Birmingham Drummond says the FDO highlights issues during freshman week that "can't wait for a study break outreach during the year," such as locking doors or calling for police assistance.

But upperclass students say they were not satisfied with the treatment of personal health and safety issues during their Orientation Weeks.

"I don't think that Harvard did anything to improve my knowledge [of these issues]," says one junior woman. "There should be more awareness and more seriousness towards the subjects."

"More of an emphasis on what resources are available would have been helpful," says Skylar Byrd '00, who is also a Crimson editor.

On the academic side as well, current students weren't happy with the introduction to Harvard.

"[Studying] was the biggest difference from high school to college--how to go about preparing and working," says Victor Chiappa '98. "There could be more on studying."

The Bureau of Study Counsel, which offers tutoring and courses in study skills, used to give a mandatory introduction to managing workload and studying at a college level.

Bureau Director Charles P. Ducey says the workshop is no longer required because the FDO felt there was enough of a focus on academics during Orientation Week.

The Bureau now offers the option at workshop WISH (Workshop In Studying at Harvard), a two-hour event open to all first-years.

"I wouldn't mind if WISH were mandatory, but I don't think I would persuade the FDO to that effect," laughs Ducey.

This year, the Bureau also hosted an optional open house featuring its services.

Despite the reservations of current students, administrators stand by their programs. They say the two-year old "Building a Safe Community," with its focus on counseling and health resources, means first-years will know where to turn.

"We're hoping we make it clear that services are available," Frazier says.

Organizers are confident that the mosaic of events provides first-years with what they need.

"[Incoming students are] sifting through a lot of information, but hopefully the message got out," says Brandon J. Hofmeister '99, the co-chair of Peer Relations/Date Rape Education. "It may not be perfect, but the information they get is helpful."

And incoming students say the message has gotten through.

"[Building a Safe Community] was something that was necessary, though it's not anything someone's going to look for-ward to," says Carrie L. Shuchart. '02.