Sophomores Will Take on Larger Role as New RAs

It might be difficult to imagine a sophomore telling a senior to keep the noise down, but that may very well be the case next year, as the Office of Residential Programs is employing 14 rising sophomores to be residential advisers, the first time that the youngest returning class is eligible for the positions.

The new policy was implemented to give younger students a chance to become involved in the Office of Residential Programs-mainly to widen the applicant pool and to increase competition among candidates.

"By allowing current first-years to apply, there is an opportunity for some students to become connected to the Office of Residential Programs earlier in their Columbia career," Cristen Scully Kromm, assistant dean for Community Development and the director of residential programs, said in a statement. "Coming off their first-year, sophomores are generally excited to devote endless time and energy into whichever project they involve themselves with."

While first-year students do not have as much experience living in the dorms as rising juniors or seniors do, administrators directly involved with the policy change said that won't be an issue.

"That really isn't a concern for me. It's how we train the staff to handle situations," Kromm said. "I don't know that a senior would say to a freshman, 'No, I don't respect you.'"

Some of the chosen first-year RAs, however, expressed more trepidation about their positions.

"Since we've only been at college for a year, there might be some experience that we lack," Eric Huh, SEAS '10, said. "It would be useful to have lived outside the first-year experience."

Kromm said that they generally tried to place the underclassman RAs in dorms where sophomores traditionally live.

Innokenty Pyetranker, CC '10, who was accepted for an RA position for next year, said that he thought the RA training­-which happens once before school starts and again during the winter-would prepare them to work in the dorms and take care of potential issues that would arise due to the age difference.

"I'm not worried because they have [summer] training and winter recharge training that will give me the skill set that I'll need," Pyetranker said.

"Eliminating the entire first-year class, solely based on their class standing, was limiting the applicant pool, and staff in residential programs was ultimately seeking the most qualified candidates," Kromm said in an e-mail.

"I'm really excited about getting to know my residents," added Huh, who applied and was accepted to be an RA in John Jay next year. "The fact that we're only a year apart is really cool because I know I can meet new friends and also be someone they can look up to and go to if they have problems."