Weekly dormitory walkthroughs by undergraduate advisors on “likely drinking nights” will not be fully implemented until this fall. The announcement, which follows a petition signed by more than 50 UGAs at the end of winter term, was made in the UGAs’ termly meeting on Sunday afternoon to the surprise of attendees, several UGAs confirmed.
College spokesperson Diana Lawrence confirmed the delay in the implementation of rounds in an email to The Dartmouth and wrote that a pilot program will be introduced during the summer while the full program will launch in the fall of 2015. The College will work with UGAs this term to flesh out a “rounds structure,” Lawrence wrote in the email.
Director of residential education and senior assistant dean of residential life Mike Wooten did not respond to numerous requests seeking comment. Associate director of residential education Jeff DeWitt also did not respond to requests seeking comment. In addition, several community directors — who preside over dorm clusters — either did not respond to requests for comment or declined to comment.
The looming implementation of weekly rounds on Wednesdays through Saturdays is a component of College President Phil Hanlon’s “Moving Dartmouth Forward” policy initiative announced in late January.
“We thought we were going to have to do rounds until Sunday,” Tori Nevel ’16, a UGA on a freshman floor, said.
UGAs were surprised by the announcement, Feyaad Allie ’16, who is a UGA, said.
This announcement follows criticism from more than 50 UGAs who, at the end of winter term, signed a petition voicing their concerns over the new walkthrough policy. Concerns enumerated in the document included the potential for the policy to change the role of a UGA from that of a community builder to a disciplinary authority, the lack of adjusted compensation despite an increase in workload and a potential “erosion” of the sense of community on floors.
The lack of any announced adjustment in salary was a major factor in many of the students’ objections, UGA Brian Li ’17, said. Wooten could not tell UGAs at the meeting if increased compensation would be offered in exchange for the expected increased time commitment or workload, Li said.
“I think when we signed our contracts and agreed to become UGAs, we did not agree to do rounds every single weekend,” he said. “We knew that the expectation was to do rounds only during the big weekends.”
Colby College has a hard alcohol ban and a similar rounds policy for its community advisors, who are equivalent to UGAs.
Cathy Zhao, a junior at Colby and former community advisor, said that Colby is in the process of removing or modifying the system so that emergency medical technicians, rather than community advisors, are responsible for patrolling dorms.
Zhao said that the rounds system at Colby “creates a hostile environment” between community advisors and residents and prevents community advisors from adequately addressing the needs of their residents.
In the petition, UGAs also objected to the rounds policy due to its potential to substantively alter the role of UGAs in their residents’ lives.
Nevel said that giving UGAs a “more policing role” does not, in her opinion, align with the goal of building community.
“I think residents will be less likely to go to their UGAs when something is happening or when someone’s in trouble, and I think there will be more secrecy on the floor, and less openness, which is not something that I’m happy about,” Nevel said.
Ariel Klein ’17, a UGA, said that she originally applied for the position because of its potential to help foster community and to form close relationships with her residents.
Several UGAs speculated that the College may have difficulty convincing students to apply for the position with the new policy in place.
Klein said that students might be hesitant to apply if the UGA position did not retain its potential for aiding in community building.
“I still think that people will want to become UGAs, but definitely a lot less people than before,” Li said.
Klein added that UGAs have been informed via email that applications for positions in living-learning communities have been substantially lagging, although she did not know if this lack of applicants is representative of a deficit in the larger applicant pool.
Allie and Klein said that they would have applied to become UGAs even if the rounds system were already in place, but Klein said that the decision would have been more difficult.
“I am predicting that numbers of applications might be a bit lower this year because students don’t see how they can fit into the new role for UGAs, and the position isn’t appealing to current UGAs the same way it was last year,” Nevel said.
