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| COLUMN: O-Week advisers should seek to aid new students, not further own aims |
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by Rose Wilde
IT'S THAT time of year again: when Rice men and women primp and practice, rehearse lines and squeeze out that last drop of creativity from a limp-rag mind exhausted by midterms and splatter it all over brightly-colored paper. When the fever hits, all you can do is sit back and wait for it to pass. Spring fever? Not quite -- it's Orientation Week fever that has conquered the campus. O-Week rivals Beer-Bike as the most anticipated event on campus. Jocks, politicos, S/Es and academs jostle elbows waiting for those coveted interviews with the coordinators. Every year the competition gets fiercer. Before you get too carried away by the hype, stop and think about why Rice University sponsors a week-long orientation period while students from other universities settle for an afternoon or a weekend. When I told my father that I had a week-long orientation before the first day of classes, he was amazed -- when he entered the University of California at Berkeley, the freshmen were thrown directly into classes. The name, Orientation Week, implies that the new students will explore the physical and institutional territory of Rice University. So, what is the function of advisers? I emphatically attest that advisers should not try to shape the malleable newcomers. The role of the adviser is to help newcomers explore the resources and possibilities at Rice, not to direct their explorations. Too many people become enamored with shaping new students. Remember, these students have their own goals -- advisers should help them realize these goals, not formulate them. O-Week exists for the newcomers, not for the upperclassmen. Advisers are the few lucky enough to share this experience. Advisers should not use the week to avenge past wrongs inflicted by other colleges, to meet prospective date material or to have a week-long vacation. It would be unfair to accuse anyone of these unworthy motives, but often advisers lose sight of the purpose of O-Week in their excitement during the actual event. Remember why you are there: to ease the transition from high school, parents and home cooking to college, roommates and Central Kitchen. Inform, but do not enforce. Take a hard look at your motivations when you apply to advise. If your reasons are O-Week can do for you , then you should reconsider. One of the best aspects of the social scene at Rice is the cross-class interaction. Freshmen are not ostracized by upperclassmen. This tradition begins with the camaraderie of O-Week, continues in the colleges and expands in university-wide organizations. Please don't treat the special opportunity to advise lightly. They are not so much your freshmen as you are their adviser. Rose Wilde is one of two copy editors and a Lovett College junior.
This item appeared in the Opinion section of the February 28, 1997 issue. |
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