Make pre-orientation mandatory

Every year during freshman orientation week, the same silly question gets asked: “Were you on OA or CA?” Some 760 freshmen attended Outdoor Action this year; roughly another 140 participated in Community Action, and the freshmen who are varsity athletes are already participating in training programs. That leaves only a small number of freshmen who start their Princeton education without having formed bonds with a group of other freshmen. Not attending pre-orientation programs constitutes lost opportunities for freshmen and the University, which can lead to a less satisfying Princeton experience.

Freshman orientation week and the start of freshman year is an odd time. Friendships created during that period are usually short-term but are very influential in determining the eventual, lasting friendships that Princetonians develop. For that period, there is a circle or web of friendships — of OA trips, CA groups and varsity teams connected by roommate relationships. At that juncture, freshmen have yet to join campus organizations. They are still figuring who they are and who they want to be; often, they are very nervous about trying anything new alone. As a freshman, I realized that the best way to meet people was through that web of connections: Anyone not on that web was instantly left out. I remember how everyone I knew outside of class for the month of September was within two degrees of separation on that web and how we only went to the Street with people on that web. I remember following someone from my OA group to my first International Relations Council meeting, a student organization that’s still important to me. Most importantly, I remember seeing people outside that web have a much harder time meeting people, because they did not have access to that wealth of connections.

Pre-orientation programs such as OA and CA also show Princeton’s diversity in a way that is fundamentally different from being forced to share a dorm or dining hall with people who are different. A week spent in close proximity with others teaches us much more about them, especially about what really drives them. My OA group was pretty diverse in terms of backgrounds, because we were grouped based on our ability to hike and nothing else. We bonded over cultural differences, particularly after one student from Romania wondered whether one of the hikers we met on the trail was just crazy — or if all Americans were like that. We discussed topics from what it’s like to be a Republican in a state like Massachusetts to growing up as an American-Chinese in a very homogeneous state to whether Europeans watched “The Simpsons.” I may have learned far more about diversity from that small OA group than I ever did during the rest of my freshman year, because I spent a full week getting to know these people. If Princeton cares about exposing its students to the diversity our admission department works so hard to create, then pre-orientation programs are the perfect tool to achieve that goal.

Finally, my OA leaders were very important in preparing me for my freshman year. I trusted everything they told me, because every discussion was informal. For the most part, I accepted my OA leaders’ views and beliefs as honest reflections of their experiences as Princetonians, even though they clearly had been told how to approach certain issues. Compared to the formality of events during orientation week, I listened to my OA leaders in a way that I never would have listened at a University-planned event. That poses a huge opportunity for the University to prepare freshmen for successful college careers in a manner that is more true to the experiences and lessons learned of other students.

Of course, making pre-orientation programs mandatory does not require solely using the existing programs. The basic dynamic of the existing programs, which I believe have worked extremely well, is a shared activity during the day, meals together and relaxation at night. Princeton could emulate Tufts’ Conversation, Action, Faith, Education program, which is devoted to interfaith dialogue and faith-based service. Princeton could otherwise emulate Harvard’s Freshman Arts Program, which covers a variety of arts from theater to painting. The particulars of these programs are relatively unimportant: Freshmen need to meet other freshmen, they need to share some experiences to bond over and they need to be given the opportunity for introspection.

Pre-orientation groups are clearly not going to be friends forever. But for those first few weeks, when freshmen transition from not knowing anyone to having friends with shared interests, having an initial group of acquaintances hugely facilitates finding new friends. Freshmen with friends turn into freshmen who feel comfortable on campus, who in turn can focus on what matters at Princeton: becoming better people.

Christopher Troein is an economics major from Windsor, UK. He can be reached at ctroein@princeton.edu.