O-Week adviser selection too exclusive

By Yan Digilov     4/15/10 7:00pm

Rice University's approach to welcoming new students with Orientation Week is often cited as a bedrock of our institution's college system and the formation of a unique campus culture. For countless members of our community, myself included, O-Week memories summon feelings of comfort and beginnings of deep friendships. But in the spirit of constant self improvement, I will suggest that one aspect of O-Week is hurting members of this community and limiting the integration of one of the most diverse campuses in the country.

During any given year, a significant portion of the student body falls into a category of O-Week untouchables: repeat offenders who seek out adviser and co-adviser positions to no avail, year after year. According to several accounts I have heard, many of these students can no longer count their rejections on their own hands - sometimes, perhaps not even their hands and feet. For them, the message is clear: You are not fit to represent this campus to a group of incoming freshmen.

Undoubtedly, they have sought the help of acquaintances, O-Week successes who seem to be fending off O-Week wooers left and right. Perhaps these kind men and women have given them helpful advice to get that coveted position of adviser, co-adviser or, if they are really desperate, fellow.

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"Just be yourself," one might say. "Show up to the interview with a smile on your face. Be friendly and make them think you care a lot about O-Week. Maybe even highlight your leadership experience with (insert meaningless leadership position)."

If one of these untouchables is really lucky, maybe someone will throw him or her a bone and give away some of the "answers" to word recognition games that otherwise may come as an "unexpected" challenge. And with that newfound confidence, along with a little bit of prescient knowledge, our unwanted friends walk into the only interview they were given, despite sending out six applications, but they still won't be picked to advise for O-Week.

The truth is that most O-Week participants won't offer the real bits of advice required to land the job because nothing these untouchables can say will be enough. And to be honest, if they tried, it might instead sound something like, "Well, you kinda just have to be friends with them. Sorry."

It is difficult to look at the current selection process for O-Week advisers without spotting an elitist culture that has crept into one of our most cherished institutions, but it must be pointed out that this is no one person's fault. O-Week is always wonderful because the people who are involved, from the coordinators to the gophers, are passionate about creating a welcoming atmosphere for new students who would otherwise have no idea what is going on. Coordinators are uniformly some of the most caring people on campus, but through the fault of the selection process, their desire to pick the "right" people leads to an unfair situation.

What does it tell us when, consistently, a sizable portion of the student body is not allowed to participate in O-Week? It should suggest that for any given incoming class, there is a sizable portion of freshmen that do not have the opportunity to interact with people who are just like them.

Currently, the selection process looks for the best people to welcome another incoming class, but unfortunately it ends up just picking the people who look right, the people who were always expected to be involved in O-Week, skipping over others that have a genuine desire to help. Even worse, the selectivity of the process turns the position of adviser into a coveted position, a head above the rest of the campus, leading many to apply in order to maintain a position of social status.

As caring, responsible members of the Rice community, we must all realize that O-Week does indeed serve dual roles. First, its purpose is to welcome incoming students, a task it performs masterfully. But at the same time, as anyone who has had the privilege to participate in numerous O-Weeks will tell you, it is also an opportunity for current students to leave their mark on this institution, to feel more connected to their home. The latter is a responsibility that we should take more seriously, and I would reiterate that it is a duty that has been neglected, through no fault of our students.

Thus, to ameliorate the current circumstances , I suggest that the rules for adviser selection be altered to allow limits on the number of times one person can serve as O-Week adviser. One go at advising and one go at coordinating would allow many more qualified individuals to contribute to the diversity of our school. Of course, there may be many other options to achieve this goal - longer term limits or smaller O-Week groups, for example - but it is vital for us to begin this conversation.

It is time that we respect all members of the community and put our own actions in the spotlight. Though our intentions have never been ill-willed, it is clear that our actions are inequitable and could be changed for the better.

Yan Digilov is a Brown College junior and Thresher features editor.

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