The WOOLIES (Welcome Week Leaders), a program run by the Office of Student Life , are a group of upperclassmen that move on campus with freshmen and first year-transfers and spend the first two weeks of the school year orienting them to the school and facilitating community. The WOOLIES give campus tours, participate in activities in the residence halls, encourage new students to attend Welcome Week events, and generally act as a resource for the new students. This, unfortunately, is where a Welcome Week Leader's participation in the first year experience ends. After the first two weeks of the school year, all but the most dedicated WOOLIES end their engagement with the residential floors they were assigned to (WOOLIES do not, normally, live on the floors that they're assigned to). This is through no fault of their own; the program is simply not designed, in its present incarnation, to provide support to first year students after Welcome Week and the first few weeks of school. Freshmen and other first year "students, however, continue to face new situations and continue to have questions about their campus and school beyond this time frame.

The solution to this issue is the FYLIES program (First Year Leaders). Modeled after the "residential sponsor," "junior counselor," "student advisor board," and "residential counselor" programs run at a number of schools across the country (including Pomona College, Williams College, Harvard University, and Brown University, to name a few), the First Year Leaders would be a significant extension of the WOOLIES. They would serve the same general purpose – to orient first year students to the school and to act as a resource for any concerns and questions a first year student might have – but would differ in two major ways: first, they would live on their freshmen/first year floors, and, second, their involvement would last through the entire year. Rather than end their involvement two weeks into the semester, just as first year students are settling in and beginning class (a time when they likely have more questions about their school than ever), FYLIES would continue to act as a resource throughout the year.

As similar as they may sound, however, FYLIES would not simply be duplicate RAs (Residential Assistants). RAs serve as resources for their residents, but also must fill the role of administrator to some extent. RAs report to and act as administrators for their Community Directors (CDs), and are expected to enforce ResLife rules; they thus must maintain some level of authority over their residents and, as a result, cannot truly be friends with them. FYLIES, on the other hand, would be free to bond with their residents on an equal level; they would neither report to the CDs nor enforce any rules. FYLIES would serve exclusively to orient first year students to the campus and foster community within the student body.

There are a number of details and specifics, relating to both the logistics and the content, of the FYLIE program that require further elaboration and fleshing-out. If you have any questions about the FYLIE program, which I hope you will be hearing more of in the future, please contact me; my email address and phone number are listed above.