Frosh Week Say What?

Background
The Student Success Office (SSO) is currently developing a proposal which will affect the academic calendar for the 2012 fall term.  In this development the following are a focus:

• Mental Health and Wellness
• Retention
• Student Engagement
• Campus Culture

Using research to back them, the SSO feel there is not enough support for students year round, and are developing changes which could involve having classes start on the Thursday of Orientation Week.  The two days that would normally be Orientation could be reassigned around midterm week or Thanksgiving as two study days.  It has also come up that these days may contain programming associated with Success Week and used as a time to check-up on students.  For more information on their proposal, please visit (www.success.uwaterloo.ca/feedback.html).

What does this mean?
As it stands, there could be a proposal brought to Senate this term to pass the shortening of Orientation Week in order to add two extra days off in October or November.  We feel there are still many finer details which need consideration by the SSO before anything gets put into motion.  These include:

• Timeline for implementation – this is happening all too quick
• The SSO is striving to increase retentions rates to levels similar to Queens and Western who both have full Orientation Week programming
• The SSO is comparing the University of Waterloo to other Universities who are not considered co-op focused
• CECS must continue to run interviews on the study days as they cannot afford to lose any more time in the first round. This will likely prevent many new students and upper years from taking the time to go home – something the SSO hoped new students would do as a stress reliever.
• The shortened week reduces the amount of time new students have to acclimatise to Waterloo before the stress of class sets in
• The shortened week provides less opportunity for new students and upper years to make strong mentorship connections
• Those on co-op in the summer will have to leave work sooner in order to make it back for class on Thursday, reducing total pay available in the summer term
• It is possible that upper year students will miss the first two days of class in order to work a full week or to move-in if from out of province or country
• Anyone participating in Orientation as a leader or new student will have very little recovery time between the high energy of the week and the start of classes
• Leader retention for Orientation could suffer which in turn could cause a reduction in quality of Orientation programming – something which contradicts what the SSO’s goals are

Important Dates
Tuesday, November 8th, 2011: Senate Undergraduate Council Meeting

• There is a strong likelihood that the proposal to shorten Orientation Week will be brought to this council for a vote.  It must be passed by this council in order to be added to the agenda for the meeting below.  If it does not pass, the calendar change will not likely occur for Fall 2012.

Monday, November 21st, 2011: Senate Meeting

• This is the last governing body which needs to vote in order to pass the proposal to shorten Orientation Week.  If it is brought to Senate and is not passed, the calendar change will not occur for Fall 2012.  If it is passed, it will be unlikely that Orientation will return to the way it was before.

Your Call to Action!
A consultation process, facilitated by the SSO and the Federation of Students, is underway to gain feedback about the student transition to university.  If you would like to provide feedback or voice your opinion on this topic, please email success@uwaterloo.ca with your thoughts or leave a message on their Facebook page ‘University of Waterloo Student Success’.