A memo released by the Committee of Class Officers yesterday criticized proposals in the report by the Committee on the First-Year Experience to create all-freshmen dorms and to group students by their freshman seminar selection.
But members of the committee, which is made up of the presidents and vice president of the four classes, still say they still support the gist of the report.
The group met with Dean of the College Lee Pelton, who chaired the Committee on the First-Year Experience, Tuesday to discuss the report that suggests ways to increase intellectualism in the first-year and interaction between faculty and students.
According to Class of 1996 Vice President Tom Caputo, COCO's memo is "not a 'position paper' of how we feel," but "a memo of concerns and opinions."
He said the group wants to work with Pelton to achieve some of Pelton's goals.
Among other things, the First-Year Report suggests that all freshmen live in three residential clusters -- the River Cluster, the Choates and the "BEMA Cluster," which would include Wheeler, Richardson and the Fayerweathers.
Senior Faculty members would live close to or in the clusters.
Instead of necessarily having all-freshmen dorms, COCO suggested that the College could increase the desirability of certain clusters "by adding programs for students," Class of 1995 Vice President Hosea Harvey said.
For instance, senior faculty members could still live in clusters without the clusters being all freshmen. COCO also suggested yearlong themes in dorm programming.
"A lot of these are trial programs that they think might have potential. They might ideally make a dormitory more desirable. Why not try it in the various clusters that are considered by many the least popular?" Caputo said.
COCO recommends construction of limited dining facilities in the dorms, but is against having a large-scale dining facility in each dorm.
In response to a proposal to change the word "freshman" to the gender-neutral "first-year student," COCO recommended a poll of senior women.
COCO's memo also says that all members of the group are strongly against housing freshmen based on their freshman seminar.
The group agreed with many proposals in the report, like changing the College's advising system and having English classes taught in nontraditional places like dormitories.
