Wilson College advisers consider changes to system

Wilson College student advisers have begun meeting to discuss changes to the residential and minority affairs advising programs, Wilson master Miguel Centeno said yesterday.

Centeno said several Wilson RAs and MAAs spoke with him about possibly revamping parts of the University's advising program. Those advisers will solicit opinions from their advisees and from other RAs and MAAs.

In addition, they will consult with Centeno and the other college masters during the review process.

"This is about the students trying to come up with something, to restructure the program with which they work. A very important part of the college is trying to see if we are doing as well as we could be," Centeno said.

Advisers said yesterday that there is a great deal of enthusiasm about the review.

"We are excited with the possibility of trying to make the system even better," Wilson RA Melissa Meadows '01 said.

Manish Shah '02, a Wilson MAA, said the group will be considering changes proposed during a similar review conducted in 1994 and 1995.

The group is paying particular attention to the current MAA system and how it could be changed to better serve the needs of minority students.

One possible change would involve altering the role of MAAs so they would serve only minority students, instead of entire RA groups.

This plan would be an attempt to focus an MAA's attention on a smaller group of minority students, according to Meadows.

Another approach would be to eliminate the title of MAA altogether and instead have an RA who would receive much of same training an MAA receives now.

In this plan, RAs would divide into four teams and each month one team would be in charge of putting together the minority-oriented programs an MAA might otherwise organize.

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A third plan would involve assigning each freshman to three RAs, without changing any of the advisers' roles and titles.

Under this plan, there would be no distinction between the three RAs, and each freshman would have the opportunity to decide with which adviser he or she felt most comfortable.

Centeno and student advisers emphasized that the review of the program would not necessarily bring about changes.

"It's really hard — we already have a system in place. The question is how would you design a system if you could start all over," Meadows said.

In the event that the advisers propose changes, Wilson College would serve as the test site for the revamped program, giving University administrators a chance to see how students respond.

"We said that we wanted to be the college that tried the pilot program," Meadows said. "We wanted to find ways of improving the system and maximizing the diversity issue on campus."

Centeno and student advisers said they are still in the early stages of their review.

"We are still in the discussion phase," Shah said. "It will be a while until we come up with something."