Changes

Sophomore year is difficult. Upon returning to campus, many second-year students sense they are suddenly on their own without the structure of the entry or the crutch of Junior Advisors. Academics stresses increase, and students are faced with hard decisions about declaring a major and what to do with their junior year. Recognizing that there is an urgent need for programming to bridge those gaps in the sophomore experience, we suggest a two to three days of “orientation” events before the start of school to assure that students start on even footing.

There are two specific needs that the orientation event will address: academic and social/psychological. Sophomores must choose a major at the end of the year, which in an addition to a great deal of soul searching, necessitates developing better ties with professors and potential advisors. Sophomores must also start organizing for their junior year. After the difficult decisions between becoming a Junior Advisor, studying away or taking on new leadership positions on campus, students must then make sure they have met necessary requirements and deadlines. The existing programs at Williams are not sufficient in preparing sophomores for these decisions. Sophomores should arrive on campus prepared and aware of what lies ahead.

Sophomore year also marks an uneasy transition from the familial entry experience to the larger neighborhood housing system. The unity and structure of entry housing, an experience that allows freshman to meet and engage with a diverse group of peers, is lost to sophomores. Upperclassmen dorms often include many closed doors and unfamiliar faces. Furthermore, there are fewer opportunities to interact with other sophomores. This living situation forces sophomores to make the group friends they made during freshman year more insular. This hinders the creation of a larger stronger Williams community and leaves its sophomores floundering for support.

Our idea for a Sophomore Orientation program would be a two or three day event prior to the start of the academic year. For 2009-2010, that would mean programming on the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday prior to the start of classes on Thursday September 10th 2009. The goal would be to address the social and academic gaps that we see exist for incoming sophomores.

Day 1 Monday September 7, 2009

Day 2 Tuesday September 8, 2009

Start of Classes

We believe that this sophomore orientation program is both viable and necessary, but we also acknowledge the challenges associated with setting up a new program. These concerns include its cost, security, interference with other programming, and student participation. Meals will present the greatest cost associated with the program. Additional costs will include extra personnel, facilities rentals, and many other program related costs such as booking fees.

We acknowledge that the added presence of the sophomore class on campus poses more work for security personnel in terms of making sure the campus is safe. We also plan to work very closely with those existent programming for varsity athletes and the Ephventures leaders. As of now, the (re)orientation does conflict with these other programs and we hope to mend this in the future.