Mentor Program Lowers Pay, Raises Expectations

By: Alec MacColl

Posted: 2/7/06

As the Class of 2010 moves into dorms next fall, something will be missing: their mentors. This week Dr. Margaret Lindsey, head of the First Year Program, presented a major restructuring of the role of mentors in the program to PRIDE leaders, Residential Life staff and faculty involved with the governance of the First Year Program. "We realized there were some issues [with the program] that we wanted to address," said Lindsey. "We knew the program wasn't perfect, so the question was, '[what] can we do to fix it?'"

Under the new plan, mentors will no longer live in first-year dorms with their students. They will be free to live anywhere on campus. Consequently, the program will pay mentors $500 for the fall term, compared to the $3000 they received this year. Lindsey said about $2500 of the mentors' pay compensated them for living with freshmen, similar to what RAs make for their duties. Most mentors will stay on for the fall semester only, as opposed to the full year the program currently requires. They will receive one credit for their fall term work. Mentors will also take a required half credit course during the fall term to give them the tools to help their freshmen academically. "At the moment, in the life of Trinity College," Lindsey stressed, "it is very important that mentors be part of a student's academic transition from high school to college."

Each first year seminar has a budget of $800. Beginning next year each mentor will also have his or her own budget of $250. While the money is intended for out of class group activities, the mentor will have complete control over its use.

Mentors have lived in first-year dorms since 1996, when they first became a part of the First Year Program seminars. The founding idea behind adding mentors was an attempt to pay attention to the "whole student" and his or her transition from high school to college. In the following years Residential Life and First Year Program staff began to realize the ambiguous position of mentors in freshmen dorms between disciplinarian and academic tutor. "Whenever you have a position like a mentor, with kind of a dual role, you're going to run into problems," said Director of Campus Life Amy DeBaun.

Dr. Lindsey worked with DeBaun and Associate Director of Residential Life Susan Salisbury to find a solution. They determined that taking the mentors out of freshmen dorms would help define the role of mentor and RA for first year students and allow both to do their jobs better. "I certainly wouldn't say [RAs and mentors] are in conflict now," noted Lindsey. "But they have very different jobs, and we think if we separate the two and leave the responsibility of the dorm community to the RAs they'll both be better off."

The restructuring changes the nature of the mentor position in a way that Lindsey and Interim Dean of Faculty Frank Kirkpatrick hope will attract more juniors and seniors to the program. Lindsey says that 75 to 80 percent of mentors tell her they're completely satisfied with their role in the seminar. "The only complaint I get, and really it's seldom that I hear this, is sometimes [mentors] don't feel like they're given a big enough role in class," she commented. While Lindsey leaves what happens in the class to the faculty, she believes the mentors' new $250 discretionary budget will increase their interaction with students outside of class.

The changes will also free up the mentors' living situation. "Although the mentors have been a very good resource in our FY halls, some of them may look forward to living with their friends and fellow classmates," said Salisbury. Current mentor David Stricoff '06, who was given a single in Jones, agrees. "I think the changes are wonderful," he said. "I found that the biggest drawback to mentoring was living by myself. Living with the freshmen is not actually that bad, however, living without roommates is."

Because the program requires only a fall semester commitment, mentors will now be able to go abroad during the spring. They'll also receive a full credit in the fall, instead of a half credit for each term. Distributing the credit over two terms had sometimes complicated credit totals for students going after academic awards.

Senior mentor Sarah Whittemore who was able to live with another mentor, also suggests that some of these changes could enhance the program. "I wasn't going to mentor my junior year because I wanted to go abroad, and I know there were other people that didn't mentor for that reason. I think getting one credit in the fall is good, because I do interact with my mentees a lot, and I feel like one credit isn't enough for that amount of time. As for the living situation, my roommate and I are lucky in that respect, because living in a single as a senior can be lonely."

This is a sentiment agreed upon by Senior Luca Delpuppo. "Living in a freshman dorm isn't that great, obviously I'd rather live with my friends. The money definitely attracts people. I know the money helps me out a lot with books and that kind of thing. So it's a two-edged sword. But I think the changes will attract mentors that care a lot about their mentees' academics -- they won't just be doing it for the money."

"By moving the mentors out, we're forcing them to think more creatively about how to get to know their students and facilitate group activities," said Lindsey. She says the restructuring is designed to give mentors the tools to do this. The new half credit course, in particular, will help mentors learn to work with the very diverse array of high school experiences their freshmen usually come from.

In that vein, Area Coordinator Chrissy Solis believes mentors will still need to make an effort to learn about their mentees' lives. "What [the restructuring] will change most is the RA and mentor line of communication," Solis said. "RAs can't see the student in the classroom, and mentors won't see the student's dorm life, so they'll need to communicate to both get the picture of the whole student."

Some mentors are skeptical about the proposed changes. Andrew Szilvasy '06 has enjoyed being a mentor and fears the changes could undermine the impact of the program. "Living in a freshmen dorm, in my opinion, was a great reward. While it is noisy and the room is small, most of the real contact I had with my mentees took place in the dormitory, often in unplanned meetings, perhaps in the hallway.

"Having mentors live somewhere else hurts the program because often times students would simply come and knock on my door at any hour, and it did not take much effort. If the mentor is across campus, that contact is lost. I think the $3,000 paid to us made it well worth living in the dorm, and those mentors who cared to connect with their students, that I know, are upset about the change in the program."

He continued, "I think, perhaps, it will draw more mentors. But I'm not sure what type. I am not convinced that if more people apply that the quality will increase. I am inclined to instead believe that with the increased quantity there will be a decrease in quality. That being said, I hope I am wrong and really do want to encourage quality students to apply and take the job so that I am wrong and so that the FY Program continues to evolve and become a success."

Lindsey says the interaction between mentors and RAs in the dorm was a driving force behind the changes, but that their real aim is to focus more attention on academics. "This way we're challenging the mentors to get to know their freshmen better academically, better than they do now." She says the mentor program seeks candidates that are passionate about making a difference in the lives of freshmen. Her goal is to then put the mentors in a position to prepare freshmen well for their college careers.

"In a world in which high school students are groomed just to get into a good school," Lindsey stated, "how do we get students to think critically, when that wasn't necessarily what served them well in high school?"

Some freshmen, on the other hand, are ambivalent about the mentors' impact. The Tripod met with a number of freshmen about the role of their RAs and mentors, many of whom wished to remain anonymous due to the sensitive nature of their comments. Said one student from Jones, "I don't really talk to our mentors. I feel like they aren't very good." He turned to his friends and they nodded in agreement. When asked about their RAs he said, "Yeah, our RA's definitely more chill about things than our mentor. He actually hangs out with kids in the dorm."

A freshman in Funston said, "My mentor lives on the second floor and I live on the fourth, so we don't really cross paths." When asked if she would seek the mentor out for help she responded, "No, there'd be no reason I'd do that."

A freshman in North Campus admits, "To be honest, I've never talked to my mentor or RA. I think the other night when I was stumbling back from late night was the first time I saw my mentor in my dorm." Two Jarvis residents concurred, laughing when asked if they would consult their mentor in the dorm. "Yeah, right, the only time we've talked to our [mentor] in the dorm is when we see her wandering around when she's drunk."

Some mentors have also noticed a lack of interaction between the freshmen and mentors. Delpuppo remarked, "No, I was surprised, people haven't come to see me at all, so in that sense it doesn't really matter if I'm in the dorm or not."

DeBaun says Residential Life staff is well aware that freshmen often feel most comfortable with the upperclassman in their dorm that is least likely to write them up, a sentiment that many freshmen shared with the Tripod. DeBaun, along with Lindsey, Salisbury and Solis feel good about the changes as long as communication is kept up between mentors, RAs and the staff they work for. "What's most important is that there's always someone that students can talk to," said Solis.

By Tripod calculations, the restructuring trims between $75,000 and $90,000 off the cost of mentors, though the school will have to finance the new mandatory fall term training course. When asked whether the administration had put pressure on the First Year Program to cut its budget, Lindsey adamantly denied the changes were based on money. She pointed out that she does not know how much money the program will have next year because the budget has not been finalized. "But if we cut a lot out of our budget," she acknowledged, "you can't expect to get it all back."

When asked about the factors that went into the changes, DeBaun reacted differently. "It's my impression that was a budget decision," she said. When told that wasn't exactly what Dr. Lindsey said, DeBaun replied, "Well, obviously there's pressure on everyone to think, 'what's the best way to be spending your money right now?' We need to be mindful of how we're spending money, so they've probably said … maybe paying mentors $3,000 to be in the freshmen dorms isn't the best way to use their money."

Interim Dean of Faculty Frank Kirkpatrick, a former head of the First Year Program, reviewed the changes before they were released. Kirkpatrick was upfront about the budget concerns, but says that's not the biggest reason why he supports the changes. "Of course it saves us money," he says. "There's pressure on everyone to save money in the current financial climate. But these changes to the program are based on sound educational principles."