As freshmen stress out about midterms, sophomores remain undecided about their majors and juniors start to dread the approaching job application process, Northwestern’s Office of Student Affairs has found a unique solution to the anxieties of campus transitions.
The Student Transitions Office is being formed to handle stressful aspects of campus life, including New Student Week, Family Weekend, class listservs, transfer student adjustments and year-to-year student transitions.
“The idea for this transition office has been out there for a few years,” said Kelly Carter, coordinator for Student Transitions. “We knew it was something we wanted to do, and the pieces just fell into place this year.”
Carter, formerly an assistant director of Undergraduate Residential Life, said the NU office and a similar program at Russell Sage College in New York are the only two of their kind among colleges in the United States.
NU has conducted research on different student-related issues for many years, Carter said.
“The interesting part is that we’ve already put so much time into researching the issues – it’s just a matter of acting on all this information,” she said.
The mission statement of the office still is being developed, Carter said, and many of the programming details have yet to be solidified.
In the meantime, Carter is working on a Web site that will function as a gateway for several transition-related links, including a graduate student version of HereAndNow.
A group of students met with Carter on Thursday to discuss the role of the office in relation to transfer students. Committee member Stephen Huneke, a Weinberg junior, said the group decided they would function as a working committee as opposed to merely an advisory group.
“We discussed the New Student Week experience for transfer students and areas that needed improvement,” Huneke said. “It’s all in the initial stages, so I can’t be too sure about what will happen.”
A unique aspect of the office will be the attention given to class-related transitions. Carter said uncertainty about their majors leads many students to experience a “sophomore slump,” sometimes resulting in general depression.
Juniors also feel the upcoming pressure of senior year and post-college life and experience similar anxieties. Carter said the new office would not provide individual counseling but would serve in a more general, programmatic role. She did not offer specific examples.
Carter estimated that almost 25 percent of students do not fit into the class they start in because of Advanced Placement credits, three- and five-year programs, and summer class credit.
“The alumni office struggles with students maintaining a class identity,” Carter said. “If you don’t think of yourself in the Class of 2002 until June of 2002, then you’re not going to have much in the way of class identity.”
Assoc. Director of Alumni Relations Jeff Velis said the new office, like other organizations, could encourage students to become active in alumni activities and to give back to the university.
“Any time you have a program or a service that will assist individuals in their transition, that organization should create a sense of commitment to the university,” Velis said. “Anything that makes their life on campus better makes our life a lot easier.”
History and German Prof. Peter Hayes chaired a faculty committee in 1999 that urged the university to expand its alumni relations programs. But he is skeptical that the new transitions office will create widespread class unity.
“The intermediate step, which is building a sense of class unity, is important,” Hayes said. “I just don’t know if this particular organization will be able to do that.”
But Carter remains optimistic about the opportunities the transitions office may provide.
“In a matter of a couple of years we’ll be able to do some big-picture stuff that no other schools are doing,” Carter said. “Hopefully students will benefit from that.”
