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The Tufts Daily
Where you read it first | Friday, March 29, 2024

As pre-orientation programs grow, students, staff consider their impact on non-participants

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First-year Sara Kniaz put a lot of thought into her decision not to participate in a pre-orientation program. After speaking with many students about their experiences, she decided it would be easier not to participate because of cost, confusion over logistics of the programs and a lack of enthusiasm about the offerings. 

However, Kniaz said that upon arriving on campus, she regretted her decision.

“I had always thought it was the minority that did it, and when I got here it felt like only one out of every 10 people I talked to didn't do one," she said. "I thought people just did them because it was an [activity] that they loved, but really people did them to find their friends. If I had known that was the main point of them, I would have done it.”

Tufts’ pre-orientation programs have never been more popular than they are now. This August, 912 incoming first-year students participated in one of the six programs offered: the newly introduced Students’ Quest for Unity in the African Diaspora (SQUAD), Tufts Wilderness Orientation (TWO), Global Orientation (GO), Fitness and Individual Development at Tufts (FIT), Conversation, Action, Faith and Education (CAFE), and Freshman Orientation CommUnity Service (FOCUS).

For Kniaz, it was somewhat jarring to start school among classmates who all seemed to know each other already.

“Going to college itself is a big adjustment,” Kniaz said. “But it's one thing when you get there and no one knows anyone, and it's another when you get there and it seems like everyone knows each other already.”

First-year Lilian Gjertsson also chose not to sign up for a pre-orientation program, noting that the deadline felt too early for her to commit to one and that she did not think they would be such an important part of the first-year experience.

“When the deadline was there, I just thought, 'Oh, it'll be fine, not that many people will do it,'” Gjertsson said. “So then I just didn't do it. Bad decision.”

Gjertsson added that she had no idea how popular the programs were when deciding whether or not to sign up. For her, seeing the established social groups that came out of the pre-orientation programs made for an uncomfortable orientation.

“For most people this is probably the hardest time in college, and to have it be a time where there are already social groups that some people just aren't included in is kind of weird,” she said.

While Gjertsson said she believes that the programs should be made mandatory, she recognized that financial restrictions could make this difficult. However, she said she wishes that Tufts gave a clearer image of the high student participation in pre-orientations.

“[T]hey should at least have a giant disclaimer that says, ‘everyone does this, you should too,’” she said.

Director for Campus Life Joe Golia acknowledged that high participation in pre-orientation programs can make starting the year difficult for students who do not join in them, but he added that this high participation rate is made clear on the pre-orientation website.

“It's hard,” Golia said. “You can't bash pre-o because of it. Pre-o is not doing anything wrong. But it is an issue … I don’t want to tell people when pre-o is over, 'Don't be friends anymore.'”

As for efforts to make the programs more inclusive, Golia explained that Tufts does offer financial support to match a student's financial aid status

He also stressed that the office works to separate pre-orientation programming from orientation week in order to provide all incoming students the same opportunities after matriculation.

“We try as best as possible, once pre-o is done on Tuesday night and then all through orientation, to make sure there are no pre-o programs, pre-o meetings, pre-o meet-ups,” Golia said.

He emphasized that the programs are accessible to everyone who wants to sign up for them.

“Every single person who applied had the opportunity to do a pre-o program,” Golia said. “Some people were not able to do their first choice ... but it's important to know that all students applying or who show an interest in participating in pre-o are already being accommodated."

While some programs such as TWO receive far more applications than they can accommodate, Golia said there are no plans in the works to significantly expand them.

“For us to increase the numbers, so much has to happen with staffing,” he said. “I think to go up much more, like 20 students, 30 students, 40 students, we'd have to shift the entire focus of the program and look at [administrative and student] staffing, look at space.”

Because the programs all cost the same amount and are paid for by students, Golia also noted that it would be difficult for the office to significantly expand any single one. Expanding one program could take students and resources away from the other ones.

“There's no budget from the university,” he said. “They're totally funded by what people pay to come to them ... [TWO] especially is a very expensive program to run.”

While Golia said that the office has discussed making the programs mandatory for everyone, he confirmed that they will not become mandatory in the next few years.

“We want to keep working on how to help these students that don’t do pre-orientation,” he said.

Golia cited the Mentor Collective at Tufts as another initiative to include students who did not participate in pre-orientation programs. The program matches students with upperclassmen for opportunities to communicate over Skype during the summer preceding their matriculation at Tufts. 

Spearheaded by College Transition Advisor Danielle Vizena, the Mentor Collective was introduced in 2015 initially as an option for students participating in GO.

“It was implemented to provide students a peer point of connection on campus to help ease their transition to Tufts,” Vizena told the Daily in an email. “This was the first year we opened it up to all undergraduate students not participating in pre-o.”

Vizena stated that she expects the program to grow next year. 

“Now that it has gained recognition and a reputation among first-years and their mentors, I think more incoming first-years will be interested in participating,” Vizena said.

Until then, Golia is waiting to get the results from this year's annual orientation survey, which is sent to half of the first-years one week after orientation by the Office of Institutional Research and Evaluation and asks about their experiences during orientation and pre-orientation, if applicable. He hopes that the results from this year's survey will include ideas from students who did not participate in a pre-orientation program about how to improve orientation.

"But you know, I'm hoping to really open this up in the future to some of our [pre-orientation] leaders, our students, and ask them their ideas," Golia said. "Once we get the survey, that'll help us get some of our info, and then we can put together some focus groups of students who didn't do pre-o to just come and talk about what their experiences were like."

Golia added that previous orientation surveys show that the pre-orientation programs are consistently rated well among students who participate. However, as the student participation rate in pre-orientation programs swells to over 50 percent of the first-year class, Golia acknowledged that changing the system might be necessary soon.

"The ratings are always so high. It's a very good problem to have, but it's a scary problem," Golia said. "Because if one year, 1,000 to 1,200 students wanted to do them, with the system we have now that would be a problem. So we need to start working on that."