During the first weeks of the fall semester, it's common to see enormous groups of first-years in the Sharpe Refectory and around campus, under the homemade banners of their residential units. This year, those groups got even bigger, as the Office of Student Life's reorganization of units enlarged some to include up to 80 students.
The intention was to even out residential counselors' workload, measured by the ratio of first-years per counselor. That ratio currently ranges between 16 and 21 first-years per counselor, whereas previously RCs might be responsible for as few as eight or as many as 25 first-years.
Counselors have responded positively to the new system, Director Jean Joyce-Brady told The Herald. But Joyce-Brady did not mention the reactions of first-years, whose well-being is the goal of the counseling program.
The problem with unwieldy units is not just that first-years have difficulty getting to know their counselors. It is that they have difficulty getting to know their unitmates. Units are crucial for first-years during orientation and throughout the year. But when units swell to encompass as many as 80 students, they seem likely to lose the sense of a cohesive community.
This cost does not seem worth the benefit of evening out RCs' workloads. Counselors in the largest units are still responsible for 21 first-years each - not much of a reduction from 25. And the strict breakdown of students per counselor does not reflect the quantity and quality of counseling individual first-years receive. Certainly, it does not justify changing unit size, a number with a more direct relevance to the first-year experience.
There is still time for OSL to rework units for the Class of 2008. The 79 counselors selected could be distributed over 29 units, rather than 22, reducing average unit size from about 65 to about 50 first-years. Under this reorganization, no unit would have fewer than three counselors. The only tradeoff would be an increased disparity in counselors' workload. But we trust that rising upperclassmen who choose the responsibilities of counseling are mature enough to accept an uneven counselor-student ratio to keep the unit experience meaningful.
