Sophmore Integration Programs: The Key to Unity on Campus

Currently, Trinity College is facing a serious issue regarding race and social class cliques on campus.  Most students tend to stick to groups of friends they feel the most comfortable with, which is commonly fellow students of the same race or social class.  This causes segregation amongst students and defeats the overall goal of a diverse campus.  When students are predominantly interacting with those similar to themselves, they are not learning about new cultures, places, or experiences.  In a survey that interviewed a random group of sophomores at Trinity College, 5/15 students mentioned that either race or social class has played a direct role in the way they interact with friends on campus.  While this number may not appear extremely high, it should be as close to zero as possible.  In order to have an open environment on campus, no students should have to feel as if race or social class will determine their social life.

At a Liberal Arts college it is essential for students to be exposed to unfamiliar aspects of life and open to change.  Specifically, Trinity’s mission is to “foster critical thinking, free the mind of parochialism and prejudice, and prepare students to lead examined lives that are personally satisfying, civically responsible, and socially useful.” Currently at Trinity, because of the cliques, students are not fulfilling their college experience. It is nearly impossible for students to accomplish this mission statement when they are rarely exposed to diversity within their respective social groups.  Students must be encouraged to be pushed outside of their comfort zone instead of frequently making decisions that make them feel most comfortable.  Further, the varying perspectives of diversity on campus make it difficult to combat the issue.  Many white students feel as though being at Trinity has exposed them to more diversity then they have ever seen, while students of color feel as though they are the obvious minorities on campus.  Marshall, a white sophomore at Trinity, states that his home state “is a state where it is over 95% white and before coming to trinity I can honestly say that besides for traveling I had never actually lived in a setting with not only different ethnicities, but also different religions.” [1. Marshall, 22.] From this quote it is clear that Marshall was exposed to more diversity then ever before when he came to Trinity. Marshall is not the only student of his type on campus and it is essential that students like this come to Trinity with an open mind instead of arriving on campus expecting to solely interact with students similar to themselves.  Although there are many different ways one could attempt to combat this obstacle, it is critical that students are exposed to diversity and forced to interact with new students as soon as they arrive on campus, before they have been given a chance to form any cliques.

Trinity College’s Campus Climate Report, released in 2007, brought up many pressing issues on campus that remain prevalent on campus today.  This report set goals that Trinity should focus on achieving and recommendations in order to reach these aspirations.  Overall, the goals were well thought through and were crucial for racial and social class diversity development on campus.  Specifically, goal number two, which states “We need greater economic, racial and ethnic diversity in our student body, faculty and staff,” [2. Cheryl Greenberg, Philip Khoury, “Final Report of the Charter Committee on Campus Climate,” (diss. Trinity College, 2007), 11.] and goal number four, which states “We need a residential and social life for students, faculty, and staff that fosters a stronger sense of community and mutual responsibility, as well as one that encourages an open-minded embrace of diverse opinions and styles,” [3. Cheryl Greenberg, Philip Khoury, “Final Report of the Charter Committee on Campus Climate,” (diss. Trinity College, 2007), 16.] are important goals to strive for in order to eliminate cliques on campus.  These goals discuss featuring more diversity on campus and the importance of individual roles on campus.  Although the recommendations provided are strong and have potential to help improve the problems, they barely address the issue of changing the orientation program.  We do agree with the goals and recommendations brought up in the Campus Climate Report, but we feel as though the most important recommendation, to change our orientation program, was not addressed enough in the report.  Recommendation “F” under goal four states that the College must, “Provide adequate funding to extend orientation programming into the academic year.  Consider a sophomore orientation, geared toward community building and fostering connection with the Hartford Area.” Despite the fact that this recommendation does address the orientation programs, the recommendation itself is located close to the bottom of the list, indicating that it is not an issue of top priority. Therefore, we believe it is not considered as critical to life at Trinity as it should be.

With determination to resolve the issue of cliques on campus founded on the basis of common characteristics such as race and social class, we propose to refurbish Trinity’s First Year orientation schedule, and to implement an effective, innovative “further integration” program for students entering their sophomore year.  After the students have become acclimated to their environment at Trinity College over the previous academic year, their “new” label has worn off and they tend to remain comfortably settled into their established social group.  As previously discussed, these cliques generally consist of members who share the same race and/or social class, and this is detrimental to the quality of the of their liberal arts education.  In order to experience what Trinity has to offer to its full potential, students would immensely benefit from a revised first year orientation program accompanied by a second year integration program designed to expand the borders of their social comfort zones.

Upon arrival at Trinity College, students usually experience a sense of timidity, yet prominent eagerness to socialize with their new peers.  Coming to Trinity as an International student, one of us (Lucy) was forced to go through International Orientation, an early orientation program geared towards students of origin outside the US.  While it was helpful to arrive on campus early, the orientation required incoming freshmen to get to know fellow international students.  Because not many other students were on campus during these few days, this was the only group of students available for socialization.  These students, more then anyone, tend to gravitate towards other students who are culturally similar or geographically close to themselves because international students are already so far away from their home, families, and other aspects of familiarity.  This causes cliques to be formed prior to the arrival of other students on campus.  Although an early orientation program for international students proves to be helpful in many regards, combining it with the regular first year orientation schedule may eliminate the initial issue of cliques on campus prior to the start of classes.

Additionally, having recently experienced the nerve-wracking transition to college, we can accurately attest the necessity for an effective welcome program.  It would be helpful to incorporate a greater quantity of sophomore students into the running of the First Year Orientation activities.  Had there been more students running this schedule, it would have been further organized and well put together.  Also, having extra sophomores available on campus during the first few days of orientation, the incoming freshman class would benefit from the additional people they can turn to with questions and concerns.  Participation in the facilitation of the First Year Orientation schedule should be voluntary, but students should be offered an incentive such as higher quality housing for their junior year in order to encourage their willingness to help.  Clearly, the Residential Assistants worked very hard to incorporate everyone into icebreaker exercises, but running a first year orientation is a daunting task that requires the participation of more students who can provide a fresh outlook regarding the experience of freshman year at Trinity College.

The most critical aspect of our proposal is the sophomore year integration program.  We believe it should be referred to as an integration program as opposed to an orientation program because the word “orientation” denotes a sense of unfamiliarity with the campus.  Clearly, the incoming sophomores do not need to be directed through the practices of a new, unfamiliar educational institution.  However, they do need to be further integrated into the campus community, constantly challenging their preconceived notions and broadening their horizons while leaving their comfort zones.  The very purpose of a Liberal Arts education is to constantly question, explore, and discover new aspects of life.  In exploring the way other colleges address the issue of encouraging students to maintain an open mind throughout their education and into their adult lives, we found through a Chronicle of Higher Education article that the University of Pennsylvania showed their incoming freshman skits designed to dramatize the conflict between black and white students that plagued the campus during the previous semester.  We believe that Trinity’s sophomore students, as part of their mandatory integration program, would benefit from skits similar to the ones performed for the University of Pennsylvania freshmen.  Additionally, these skits depicted “the side of college life you don’t get on the guided campus tour: date rape, safe sex, and, especially, the friction associated with growing racial and ethnic diversity.” [4. Christopher Shea, “Orientation at Penn,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, September 15, 1993, sec. Archives, http://chronicle.com/article/Orientation-at-Penn/92558/.] We believe that after completing one year of college, these issues will motivate the students to become vocal about their opinions, and inspire them to think about race and other issues in a new way.

In addition to the viewing of the skits, we propose that the students should be separated into randomly selected groups in which they participate in enjoyable activities such as problem solving exercises or even relay races.  The main goal of this new program is to facilitate the interaction and socialization of students who would not normally establish friendships.  These activities should be run by upperclassmen, also offered an incentive for participation.  We argue that this program should be mandatory for all incoming sophomores because the concept of voluntary participation implies that willingness for open-mindedness is also an option here at Trinity College.  When paired with the increasingly organized First Year Orientation, we argue that a sophomore year integration program will enhance not only the unity amongst the sophomore class, but also the experience of a Liberal Arts education.

After examining campus reports at Trinity, talking to Trinity sophomores and exploring orientation programs both at Trinity and at other campuses, it is clear that Trinity must refurbish their orientation program in to order to achieve their goal of a diverse and open-minded student body.  This resolution is the key to resolving race and social class cliques on campus, which are not allowing students to fulfill their liberal arts experience.  By expanding the orientation program into sophomore year, students get the opportunity to interact with fellow classmates they may not know and further understand the importance of a clique-free environment.    It is essential that this recommendation be implemented as soon as possible as the issue of cliques on campus is a fundamental problem to the overall goal of a diverse student body.

About the Authors: Lucy Robinson, from Toronto, Canada, and Christy Boyle from  Longmeadow, MA, are both students at Trinity College in the class of 2015 within the first year seminar “Color and Money.”