Logistical changes to Tufts' pre-orientation programs will next year bring all five programs under the supervision of the Undergraduate Orientation Office, streamlining their advertisement and application processes.
The office, in conjunction with the programs' coordinators and the Office for Campus Life (OCL), will this year help develop a universal application and payment mechanism for all five of the programs, which include Conversations, Action, Faith and Education (CAFE); Fitness and Individual Development at Tufts (FIT); Freshman Orientation Community Service (FOCUS); International Orientation (IO); and Tufts Wilderness Orientation (TWO).
It will also provide training for all program leaders and staff and coordinate the logistics for students storing belongings in their dorms before pre-orientation programs begin, according to Coordinator for Orientation and Administration Jamie Engle.
"We are helping to coordinate the logistical aspects of the programs but are leaving control of the content to the individual programs," Engle said.
The changes will bring a sense of administrative authority to the way the programs are run, according to Assistant Director of Athletics and FIT coordinator Branwen Smith-King.
"It's important for the administration to have a hand in what we do and for us to feel supported," Smith-King said.
While the change aims to streamline pre-orientation programs, several students who helped coordinate this year's programs expressed concern that the common application would dampen the individuality that program-specific applications allowed.
"We like to write our own application in a very FOCUS-specific way," FOCUS co-Coordinator Mike Borys, a sophomore said. "We're afraid we might end up with people who don't really want to be at FOCUS."
Junior Elliott McCarthy, who served as a co-coordinator for CAFE, expressed similar concern that the common application would take away from the individuality of each program.
"It will be harder to tell whether a student would be a good fit for your program or not," McCarthy said, adding that he hoped to avoid creating an application as formal as the one used by Tufts' Office of Undergraduate Admissions.
The Undergraduate Orientation Office and coordinators for each program are in the process of collaborating on a final version of the official application, Borys said.
The universal application will help encourage cooperation among the groups and streamline the application process, Smith-King said.
"There was a feeling that we needed to collaborate more, and the common application will be a step in the right direction," she said. "I'm in favor of the work [the Undergraduate Orientation Office] is trying to do to make the programming more uniform."
The new application process will now also require all pre-orientation programs to notify students of their acceptance in June, according to International Office Director Jane Etish-Andrews, who serves as the IO coordinator.
The Undergraduate Orientation Office this year will also centralize the advertizing of the pre-orientation programs into a joint brochure featuring all five options. Advertisement was a responsibility formerly delegated to the heads of individual programs. The office will circulate the brochure online and on paper at April Open House.
Since the Undergraduate Orientation Office will allocate a higher budget for the common brochure than individual programs have had available to them in the past, Borys believed the packet will be of better quality.
Etish-Andrews believed that centralizing the programs' recruitment efforts would bring IO in league with the better-known pre-orientation programs.
"It'll make us more mainstream," she said. "It will give the program more visibility to be with the other four programs that we're not usually listed with."
McCarthy agreed that CAFE, which is sponsored by the student interfaith initiative of the same name and last year hosted nine participants, will benefit from the heightened visibility.
"It gives everyone equal exposure," McCarthy said. "We'll probably see an increase in numbers."
TWO co-Coordinators Louisa Bradberry and Duke Fountain, both seniors, believed that the changes were in the best interest of students and their families and would not hurt the integrity of any programs if implemented properly.
"We are doing our best to work with the OCL to meet their concerns, while also trying to retain the individuality and excellence that people have come to expect from TWO," Bradberry said.
The move, Smith-King said, reflected the university's belief that pre-orientation programming is valuable for incoming freshmen.
"We're all responsible for these young people," she said. "The university has taken it seriously enough that they want to combine our efforts, and that really shows the value of these programs."
