<nt-weight: bold">First-year experience can still be improved
One year ago, Carleton made the decision to eliminate the annual Pre-Frosh Trips, a program that Campus Activities had run for many years. In doing so, the administration said that the Pre-Frosh Trips would probably be used, in different formats, throughout the year, to provide further opportunity for first-year students to bond. It has been almost exactly a year since the college officially announced its decision, and since that time very little has been done to replace the Pre-Frosh Trips.
Several weeks ago, the First Year Student Experience Task Force, formed last year to “evaluate New Student Week and the overall First Year Experience” presented a report of its findings on the First Year Experience to CSA. The report focused mostly on New Student Week, and offered several interesting recommendations on how to improve it. No proposals were made in the report, however, to extend first-year orientation through Fall Term, nor how to extend Pre-Frosh Trips to all students.
This means, then, that in an entire year, the college has made no progress in revising the Pre-Frosh Trips, or in utilizing the concept in a different way. Certainly the Trips were not perfect, but in letting an entire year pass with no new action or no new changes to New Student Week, the college is letting an important resource sit idle.
Elect this candidate to the Presidency of the CSA
For President of CSA, The Carletonian endorses McKay Duer. Partially because Duer is the Viewpoint Editor of The Carletonian (and The Carletonian supports their own), because she is qualified, but also because there are no other candidates running for President.To repeat: there is only one person running for President of the CSA.The race was over before it even began.
How is it that CSA can not generate enough interest from the student body for more than one person to run for President? Should the CSA Presidency not be a highly sought-after position, and, after last year, a close and potentially contentious race? The state of politics at Carleton is, to say the least, curious and disappointing.
Does this lack of a race make the CSA any less important in the eyes of the student body? Perhaps, although that question will be generated after the results of the CSA voting are made public. This should be a sign to future leadership – see: Duer – that the current state of CSA is not a good one.
-The Editorial represents the views of the Carletonian editor