Increased participation in several Tufts pre-orientation programs this year has forced coordinators to consider placing a stricter cap on enrollment.
The five pre-orientation programs offered to incoming freshmen give them the chance to meet some of their fellow Jumbos before orientation by engaging in activities of common interest. But the increasing popularity of these programs may lead coordinators to place limits on the number of participants in order to preserve the programs' social atmospheres.
All freshmen are invited to apply to the pre-orientation programs, which cater to different interest groups ranging from those interested in interfaith dialogue to more outdoorsy types.
Assistant Director of Athletics Branwen Smith-King coordinates Fitness & Individual Development at Tufts (FIT), a health and wellness program. Pre-orientation programs are an important part of the freshman experience, she said.
"For some incoming freshmen, I think it's really important," she said. "I think it just helps them with their adjustment to the university."
A surge in the number of students applying for pre-orientation programs has raised the question of whether it may be necessary to impose a cap on enrollment to ensure that a key goal of pre-orientation programs — encouraging intimate interaction — continues to be met.
Smith-King said that approximately 250 students applied to FIT. Enrollment in FIT increased 24 percent this year, from 150 to 186 students.
To compensate for this higher enrollment, FIT, which is organized into small activity groups of 10 to 12 freshmen, increased the number of groups and student leaders.
Smith-King said that all of this year's applicants were given a spot, but any further increases in applicants might make this impossible in the future.
"We were able to accommodate everybody, but I had to be creative," she said. "I can't imagine that we would want to be much larger than this."
Smith-King said she is in the process of brainstorming more ways to handle FIT's growth.
"I'm at the point now where I need to re-evaluate how we're going to move forward," she said. "I'm going to work through that these next couple months and give it some thought. … If we were bigger, then we would really have to be creative about finding some other outdoor activities off campus."
Some of the measures being considered include hiring extra staff for the program or reworking FIT's structure to facilitate the accommodation of more students.
The increased popularity of the pre-orientation programs has also presented financial challenges. Smith-King explained that as enrollment increases, so must the cost of the program, which is funded through a participation fee.
"I just worry that we're running out of space and resources," she said. "Things get more expensive, and I don't want to increase the fee."
The Conversation Action Faith Education (CAFÉ) pre-orientation program, now in its second year, increased its enrollment from four to nine students this year, according to University Chaplain David O'Leary, who runs the program. CAFÉ is based on interfaith religious discussion and services and is housed in the Interfaith Center.
"This year we doubled in size, so it's very exciting," O'Leary said.
O'Leary said that the discussion-based nature of CAFÉ necessitates a small group of participants and that he would be in favor of capping the program's enrollment.
"I would have to talk to the student leaders, but my guess would be I wouldn't go above 20," he said. "I would be very respectful of what the student leadership's ideas are."
O'Leary echoed Smith-King in highlighting resource limitations. Despite CAFÉ's smaller size, he expressed concern that there might not be sufficient facilities for a group larger than 20 students.
Another popular pre-orientation program, Freshman Orientation Community Service (FOCUS), received approximately 215 applications this year and enrolled 155 students, versus 160 students last year, according to FOCUS coordinator Erik Antokal, a junior.
FOCUS, which is sponsored by the Leonard Carmichael Society, takes participants on service trips in the Greater Boston area. Antokal attributed the program's lack of growth to the fact that this year's application deadline was two weeks earlier than last year's.
Antokal said FOCUS was organized this year into 20 groups of about seven or eight freshmen. If necessary, he said the program would most likely be capped at 200 students, although with increased resources, the program could potentially accommodate more students.
"As more housing opportunities are discovered, [enrollment] could increase," he said. "There's so much community service to be done."
Tufts Wilderness Orientation (TWO), which takes participants on a camping trip in the woods, caps the maximum number of participants at 200, according to the program website. Because the number of applications generally exceeds the number of available spots, coordinators distribute spots in the program through a lottery system and utilize a waitlist system.
