Administration to Overhaul Orientation

Author: Andrea Gissing

Feedback from both students and faculty has prompted the Dean of Student Affairs office to restructure fall orientation. "Each year at the end of orientation we survey first-years," said Dean of Student Affairs Ann Hanson. "They have told us that they are exhausted and that orientation is too long." For the past six or seven years September first-year orientation has been a week-long affair, with students moving into their dorms a week before classes begin and finishing the week with orientation trips.

"This [coming] year," said Hanson, "we have decided to try an experiment."

The experiment, described in an e-mail sent to faculty and staff, entails shortening the length of orientation next year and then evaluating it again. The new schedule will concentrate on "essential academic components students need to understand in order to begin their first semester."

The new September schedule is modeled on the February orientation program. The new students would arrive on Wednesday, Sept. 8. First-Year seminars would meet for the first time on Thursday morning, followed by placement tests and the academic forum, and advising would begin that afternoon and continue to Friday. Registration for classes would be held Saturday morning and convocation would take place Sunday afternoon. Classes will start Sept. 13.

Along with shortening orientation, the revised schedule would restore the Labor Day weekend for faculty and students. "I do not think this should be a problem from students' perspective," said Hanson. "It will give the first-years a few more days of vacation."

Alison Byerly, dean of the faculty and vice president for academic affairs, said that the response she has received from the faculty regarding the change has been positive. "Faculty think it is appropriate for orientation to focus on preparing students for the work they will have to do here," she said. "I think one benefit of the new system will be that students will be encouraged to focus on their academic preparation, rather than experiencing a level of free time and activity that is not necessarily representative of what life will be like once the semester starts."

While many question what place orientation trips will have next year, Hanson is currently looking for ways to integrate them into the new schedule. "I am well aware of the value and popularity of our Orientation Trips Program," she wrote, "and am committed to continuing them in some form." She added that there is a subcommittee of Center for Campus Activities and Leadership, Middlebury Outdoor Orientation, This Is Vermont and Volunteer Preview organizers who are investigating options.

Besides the length and the effect it will have on orientation trips, nothing else about the pre-school schedule will change. The JC program will still have an orientation and Hanson does not anticipate that the change will affect any of the pre-season sports schedules. Upperclassmen will be able to move in as usual the Saturday before classes start.