Peer mentors will provide support

Peer mentors, new live-in student workers for freshman residence halls, will aid Living Learning Communities.

The Office of University Housing and Residential Life recently created a new student staff position with its Peer Mentor program. The peer mentors will aid in creating supportive and positive communities within on-campus resident facilities, according to the office.

Compensation for the position includes free housing for the academic year.

Although both resident assistant and peer mentor positions require student workers to live in the dorms where they work, peer mentors are assigned to specific Living Learning Communities. Temple currently offers 10 Living Learning Communities, ranging from programs such as “Deciding Student Wing” to “Fox School of Business” to “Peace and Conflict Studies.”

There will be two peer mentor positions available next year. One peer mentor will be assigned to the academic LLCs, and the other will be assigned to the co-curricular LLCs. In the future, the office intends to expand the program.

“I can’t stress enough the role that peer mentors will play in promoting these LLC to new students,” Assistant Director for Assignments and Billing Sean Killion said.

The position is intended to help acquaint students in the LLCs with campus life and assist them in meeting their academic responsibilities. They are expected to be available for students to make one-on-one appointments and are also required to create and maintain helping relationships with students on their designated floors.

“We want to make sure we’re committing resources to help programs that we think will help students’ academic interests,” Killion said. “We’ve taken a look at our budget and decided this is important, and we wanted to commit more resources towards the Living Learning Communities.”

Additionally, peer mentors will work with designated RAs to plan at least one LLC program per semester.
“I like doing it because it’s fun, and as a psych major, watching students and how they interact with each other and their parents is interesting,” Moriah Baxevane-Connel, a sophomore Honors Program peer mentor coordinator, said.

The Honors Living Learning Community has already established a peer-mentoring program designed to help guide prospective Temple Honors students. It is relatively similar to the new, university-wide peer mentor program, with Honors peer mentors working to help orient incoming freshmen around Main Campus.

“I take prospective students around on visits, give them tours, have lunch with them and let them sit in on a class with me,” sophomore chemistry major Megan Jennings, an Honors peer mentor, said.

The new peer mentor program will extend beyond prospective students and work to assist current freshmen living in LLCs within the residences. The peer mentor program is aimed at enhancing the various missions of the current LLCs.

“It’s an additional resource that will help for a smooth transition for incoming students,” Killion said. “We want there to be a peer-to-peer relationship with older students so that they can provide feedback to new students, so that they [can find] answers to the questions they have.”

Grace Dickinson can be reached at grace.dickinson@temple.edu.

College-aged peacemakers can talk about it without outside help

The functions of the Office of University Housing and Residential Life’s Peer Mentor program cover the same responsibilities as responsible adults.

Moving from familiar and comfortable homes to cramped dorm rooms with complete strangers can be a big transition for incoming Temple students, but employing peer mentors to ease students’ growing pains is not the answer.

The Office of University Housing and Residential Life’s new Peer Mentor program is designed to make it easier for students to build relationships with others on their floors and wings. Peer mentors must also be in tune to any concerns or problems residents may have. But for students living on Main Campus, most issues can already be solved with an already-existing tool: a Resident assistant.

“I had a problem with a roommate, but we resolved it among ourselves and the RA,” Luke Kockert, a freshman actuarial science major, said.

Kockert, who lives in 1300 residence hall, added that he never entertained the idea of seeking a third party, such as a peer mentor, to solve his roommate problems.

Other than whose turn it is to clean the bathroom, I have had minimal roommate disputes as a freshman living in 1300. Students work out their dorm room battles independently, even if it means transferring rooms.

“Although I’m sure a peer mentor could be useful, I would much rather go to my friends who know who I am and know background information about my situations and issues,” said Jenna Keeney, a freshman nursing major who also lives in 1300.

Similarly, if I had a serious problem I couldn’t possibly work out on my own, I would seek advice from someone familiar with my personality and relationships. Burdening a stranger with my problems would feel uncomfortable, and I would not be able to truly open up to that person, regardless of any training or experience he or she might have in peer mentoring.

As adults, it should be our responsibility to be able to overcome squabbles and foster new relationships.
“My biggest struggle in the dorms has been meeting people,” Sara Sweeney, a freshman education major, said. “Since I live in White Hall, all the rooms are suite-style, and a lot of the time, people keep their doors shut.

“On the other hand, people [who live] in Johnson and Hardwick [residence halls] have their doors wide open and are friends with everyone on the floor.”

One of the peer mentors’ responsibilities is to create a social community within residence halls, something Sweeney said is lacking in her residence hall. But considering all of the other activities and programs Temple offers, having a peer mentor to bring students together isn’t necessary. There are dozens of on-campus events, clubs and opportunities in which students can get involved. I met several people on my dance team, In Motion, and even a few good friends from classes.

The Peer Mentor program was created with good intentions, and sometimes freshmen do need a third party to diffuse serious arguments, but we learned the elementary school principles of compromise and forgiveness a long time ago. Kind and caring mediators who hold our hands and fix our problems won’t be readily available when students are thrown into the real world.

Cary Carr can be reached at cary.carr@temple.edu.

Freshmen bond with upperclassmen in residence halls

After moving away from home to attend college, the emotion that most likely takes over freshmen is fear. At least it’s nice for them to know that everyone else moving into their residence halls is experiencing that same fear.

This year, some freshmen were caught by surprise when they were told they would be rooming with upperclassmen.

The Office of University Housing and Residential Life changed its housing assignment process for new students because of the increase in freshman students attending the university for the Fall 2008 semester.

Freshman psychology major Lisa Long currently lives with a freshman, a sophomore and a junior living in Temple Towers.

Like any other freshman, Long chose three residence halls for her living arrangement at Temple. She was wait-listed for two residence halls and didn’t know what to expect.

Long had no idea that she would be living in Temple Towers when she first signed up for housing. She said the situation is working out fine.

“Once the four of us moved in, our older roommates took us around campus a little and showed us where to eat and [gave us] a quick tour of where the buildings for classes were,” Long said.

According to the Web site for the Office of University Housing and Residential Life, students of varying academic classes may be placed in the same living situation due to the extreme increase in enrollment since 2006.

Though it seems natural for freshmen to feel intimidated when becoming assimilated to dormitory-style living, students don’t want to appear immature or feel inferior to their upperclassmen roommates.

For Long’s roommate Brandi Hargette, the situation was flipped. Hargette lived in the Edge with one roommate when she was a freshman and was surprised to hear that she would be living with a freshman during her sophomore year. Though she didn’t know what to expect, the situation turned out to be a learning experience for both parties.

It may seem like a tough experience to get used to, but it is possible to develop a productive living environment if all of the roommates remain positive and work together.

“I thought it would be tough at first,” Long said, “but we’re all becoming good friends.”

Cassandra Lund can be reached at cassie.lund@temple.edu.