The decision has been made to remodel the First-Year Experience (FYE) program.
Instead of the current program, where groups of freshman meet once a week, First-Year Mentors (FYM) will meet with students who live on the same wing each month and individual students will meet with their mentors individually once a semester.
One question immediately arises: Will the new program change the way in which incoming students adapt to college life? The proposed program continues to showcase Fairfield’s Jesuit tradition of “Living and Learning,” a central part of University President Fr. Jeffrey von Arx’s strategic plan. It will create closeness between people who live in the same dorm halls and unite academics with dorm life.
However, switching the program to a confined atmosphere will discourage the emphasis on students branching out, and meeting people they do not live with.
This initiative reflects the Ignatian Residential College we already see on campus, which is known to provide a great sense of community. While the IRC works well for the students in the program, it is voluntary. Forcing the values of the program on all freshmen may cause resentment and make them less open to it.
It is important to note that the student voice is being stifled in multiple ways with this decision.
The focus of the program will be for FYMs to discuss topics about self-development, rather than topics surrounding the first-year experience, such as alcohol use and the pressures of academic life.
Who, then, is expected to teach incoming students about alcohol policies on campus and where to seek psychological help and support?
Despite the fact that students will still be teaching the program, they will be a select group who go through intensive training and will be paid for their work. These new mentors may be more afraid of talking about controversial topics and straying from the program, unlike the current volunteer leaders.
We see how often policies can be convoluted through the discrepancies in the extension 2241 program that, according to signs posted throughout campus, allows students medical help after consuming too much alcohol without fear of future punishment they may receive.
In many instances, though, students have been subject to further consequences for calling x2241 if they are caught in a secondary offense.
The overall disconnect between the promotion of x2241, and the actual implementation of the “no consequence” policy characterizes a greater problem here at Fairfield: If no one questions a policy, will it ever be fixed?
We hope that FYM’s will lead incoming students’ next year to question what they learn about existing policies.
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