Chapter VII.-Orientation of Freshmen

The idea that the college or university should welcome its freshman class, make special preparation for its reception, and arrange for its easy assimilation into the student body, originated with thoughtful upperclass students themselves and not with the faculty. As a matter of fact, some excellent orientation work with freshmen women was begun a good many years ago by organized upperclass students, either through the women's student government board or in some cases by the Young Women's Christian Association. The associated men students in some schools and the students' councils, embracing both men and women, in some others, took up the idea and developed it to include such matters as meeting the freshmen at trains and busses, helping them to find their way about the campus, assisting them in the all-too-complicated process of registration, and even sometimes finding them board and lodging. The students, too, were the first to understand that some offer of assistance before the freshmen left home, either through a letter from an older student or through some sort of handbook, might be the most effective introduction to school spirit. While the administration and the faculty of many colleges throughout the country have now taken up this student idea and developed it in ways that the students had not contemplated and for which, in fact, there were no resources available to them, student contribution in this service should be fully recognized. From the merciless hazing of freshmen in days not yet altogether vanished from memory, to the cordial welcome and whole-hearted assistance now given them by upperclassmen, seems a gigantic step, but it is one that the students themselves took with all too little faculty recognition.

Some of the accepted ways of assisting new students in their adjustment to the college world are: (1) Communication with these students before their graduation from high school; (2) conducting a preliminary series of meetings and tests for them immediately upon their arrival on the campus and before the beginning of regular classes; (3) sectioning of classes on the basis of the students' abilities; (4) providing for the transfer of students from courses in which they are failing to those in which they have some chance of succeeding; (5) assigning the ablest members of the teaching staff to the freshmen classes; (6) prescribing the courses which freshmen may take;

(7) offering a course designed to teach the student how best to use his time and efforts; and (8) giving the students individual help by means of faculty advisers. Some of the land-grant institutions use all of these methods; all of them use some. The word "orientation" has a vogue at present that focuses attention on the practices grouped under this heading.

Of the land-grant institutions, a large majority are definitely concerned with the matter of orienting the freshmen to their campuses. Some 39 make official contact in one way or another with the students before their arrival on the campus. The most usual means of establishing this contact are through the sending of official college publications such as catalogs, bulletins of general information, etc., all of which contain some definite information on living conditions, student expenses, and many times student organizations. More than onehalf of the land-grant institutions initiate correspondence from the offices of the dean of men and the dean of women and special correspondence from the deans of the various colleges. Another muchused method of giving preliminary information to prospective students is through contacts with students while they are yet seniors in the high schools. This may be done by official college lecturers in high schools or by sending to the high schools student publications such as the student annuals, weeklies, monthlies, etc. Twenty-two of the land-grant institutions hold special high-school conferences on the campus during the spring. In 19, student organizations conduct special correspondence with incoming freshmen. Sometimes this is in the hands of the religious organization of the school such as the Young Men's Christian Association or the Young Women's Christian Association, but nearly always where this method is used the allinclusive student organization, such as the Associated Student Body or the student governing board of the institution, initiates the correspondence and the religious organization supplements it. Twentyfour of the land-grant institutions print some sort of a handbook which contains information about the student organizations, and in many other institutions such a publication is printed and distributed by the student governing organization.

Perhaps the best-known recent device for helping the freshman to adjust himself when he arrives on the campus is freshman week, a period of from one to six days preceding the regular registration of upper classmen, attendance at which is required of the entire freshman class. Thirty-nine of the land-grant colleges have instituted freshman week. In a few cases all new students, transfers as well as freshmen, are required to attend, but this is not the usual practice. With the adoption of freshman week, the administration and faculty have taken over a large part of the work

formerly done by upper-class students in helping the freshmen to adjust themselves to their new environment.

Freshman week as it is now organized, at least in the land-grant institutions, consists largely of formal exercises such as lectures, tests, tours of the campus, introduction to the library and its use, and the accomplishment of registration with advice about selection of courses. To the student organizations has been left in large part the leavening of this rather dreary formalism with human recreation. In practically all of the institutions, certain social affairs, athletic events, get-wise meetings, and individual advising, are left to such student organizations as the big-sister committee of the women's student government association or the so-called senior advisers of the general student body. The religious organizations and the churches near the campus are given a chance to participate through social programs confined to a definite place in the freshman week calendar. A good deal of time in all of these institutions is assigned to the individual advising of students by faculty or administrative officers. The returns both from this and the personnel report arouse wonder as to whether deans would have any time at all left for administrative duties if they devoted the amount of time indicated in the reports to individual registration, and educational and vocational advising.

In reporting on the work of freshman week as it has been carried on by them, 31 institutions express satisfaction with its operation; 3 feel that it needs a good deal of improvement; 1 declares that it is abandoning it altogether, although no reasons are given; 12 contemplate no change in the program as at present set up; 14 wish to give more time to individual registrants; 4 wish to enlarge the program and lengthen the period, while 4 intend to shorten their period; 12 indicate that too much emphasis has been placed on formal lecturing and not enough on individual counseling. The participation of various persons and departments in freshman week exercises is fairly uniform among all the institutions.

The vocational guidance committee of the institution, if there is one, the group of faculty advisers assigned to the work, and the deans of the colleges, assist in making out the individual student programs. Sometimes the registrar is included in this group. It is a little difficult to know just how effective the work of the deans may be in one institution that reported that they gave their moral support only. Aside from the physical examinations, the physical education department and athletic director usually assist only by helping stage semi-social affairs for entering students. It is quite common apparently for the librarian to give a lecture on the use

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of the library and a number of institutions mentioned his conducting a tour of the library also.

The various student groups, such as the student council, the women's organizations, and the special student committees, are given the margins of the students' time for their share of freshman week. Many of them have charge of evening entertainment during this preliminary period, holding mass meetings for all freshmen on one night, separate meetings for the men and women on another night, and frequently a final mixer which is purely social. The first two meetings are largely informational, giving the students some feeling of the traditions of the school; at the two separate meetings the activities in which the men students and women students can take part are outlined. Thirty-three of the institutions report that they use upperclass students in the the work of freshman week, while only 6 give them no share in it. All of those who use the students replied that their work is extremely helpful. Only one, which had not used them at all, answered that it felt that student aid would be hurtful because of the wrong advice that would be given. This institution was apparently unaware of the implied reflection on the effectiveness of its own work with its students if such were the case.

A common interference with the success of freshman week seems to result from the use of the same period of time by fraternal organizations to conduct their drives for new members. In 14 of the land-grant institutions, rushing by the fraternities goes on during this period, causing serious distraction of those students who are being rushed and also an unfortunate division within the freshman group itself, since those who are not rushed can not be unaware of the social distinction which has been made between them and their supposedly more fortunate classmates.

It is impossible to say whether freshman week has materially reduced elimination, since so many other factors enter into the question of elimination that this single set of influences can not be segregated. Eleven of the institutions are inclined to think that it has had some effect; five feel that it has not had any material effect; but the majority reply that they could not answer this question because of its complexity.

Most of the institutions of higher education have come to the conclusion after a good deal of experience that they obtain the best results when the students are divided into classes whose pace can be adapted to the ability of the individual in such subjects as English, mathematics, science, and languages. It is quite common now to make up the classes on the basis, not merely of how

much work in the subject the student has previously had, but also on his own ability as shown by some one of the standard tests. It is felt that this method of dividing the classes makes it possible for each individual to do better work, since in the section showing unusual ability these students can go at a much more rapid pace and with much more stimulating competition among themselves than with a mixed group. It seems to be equally true that the slow sections make really better progress and get more out of the work as individuals when they are competing on this fairly even level than where the performance of some outstandingly brilliant student points out all too discouragingly their inability to match his performance. The case is not so clear for the groups of average ability, since the removal of the outstandingly strong students leave them to their own pace setting. Many times this group contains quite a number of students who by competition with the more brilliant would develop greater proficiency than they seem to when they are competing only with those of about their own level. Perhaps this is truer in the classes in such subject matter as English and languages than it is in mathematics and the sciences. It is in English, however, that we find the largest number of institutions sectioning their classes on the basis of ability.

Thirty-two of the land-grant institutions section their English classes on the basis of student ability, 24 their mathematics, 15 their chemistry, 10 their languages, and 4 use this as the basis in some other subjects. There is no apparent uniformity even within a single institútion since some section only one subject on ability and some several. In spite of the fact that 33 of the institutions sectioned their students on the basis of ability, 22 replied that the work in the courses was the same for all sections, a contradiction for which they offered no explanation. Twenty-three of the institutions felt that the sectioning was a real factor in the reduction of freshman elimination, while four replied that they did not.

Most of the land-grant institutions make provision for transferring a student from a subject in which he shows lack of aptitude to one in which he will have a better chance of success, and they do this fairly early in the work.

There was an old idea that anybody could teach a freshman and that the talent of the institution should be saved for the upper-class students. While this has been contradicted repeatedly, it would still seem to be all too much in force in the land-grant institutions. One-half of them report that less than one-fifth of the freshmen are taught by men in the rank of full professor; less than one-seventh by men in rank of associate professor; just about one-fourth by men in the rank of assistant professor; and more than one-third by men in the rank of instructor. On the other hand, there was a comparatively small percentage of the freshman class taught by those under the rank of instructor. While, of course, it is realized that