Archived Edition: April 20, 2004 | Back to Current	Sep 09, 2010

Bigger entries, better entries
David Seligman

I may be one of the last people on this campus who would be critical of the entry system. As a former first-year and a current Junior Advisor (JA) in Willy D, I am thoroughly convinced of the important role that entries play at Williams.

Every so often I have heard horror stories of freshmen at other schools having no one to go to dinner with in their first week at college, and I have always thought, “Thank God for the entry system.” Not only do entries provide stability and comfort to incoming frosh; they also bring together diverse groups of students who might not become friends otherwise. In those first few months at college, your entry can make this place feel a little smaller, a little safer and a little more like home.

But what happens when your close, intimate entry becomes a little too small? What happens if the only people you really know well are all part of a group of 20 that was socially engineered months before you came here?

On occasion, it seems like the intense solidarity fostered inside an entry can make it difficult for some students to interact with the Williams community outside of it. Those who are more critical of the entry system complain that some of the friendships that it fosters are forced and maybe even “unnatural.”

Obviously this problem is by no means symptomatic of any first-year class as a whole. Many of those who are more active on this campus feel comfortable in the community while still maintaining close and healthy relationships with their entries. But the entry system is also designed to help those who aren’t as likely to reach out into other activities, and though these people will benefit from the closeness of an entry, at times, the comfort the entry offers may make it even harder for them to branch out.

This is a problem with which JAs constantly struggle. It is the motivation for screw dances and other inter-entry activities, where the intention is to allow first-years to interact with each other in larger groups. Yet, I have often been doubtful that these activities really do the trick.

The three entries that have been very successful at solving this problem in the past two years are Morgan East and the two entries in Lehman. In some sense, all of these entries work in similar ways. In the past few years, JAs in Lehman have made a concerted effort to integrate Lehman East and West into one big entry with four JAs and about 30 first-years, a setup that Morgan East already has.

Although these entries aren’t so big that they alienate more introverted first-years, it seems that they are big enough to allow for a broader entry and a bigger comfort zone for many frosh.

I am not suggesting that we change the dynamic of the Frosh Quad dramatically, but I do think that especially those entries in Williams and Sage might have something to learn from these examples. I think that Fay and East aren’t as problematic, as it seems that each building might already be fairly integrated. What if each of the entries in the Frosh Quad paired off with one of its neighbors and formed an informal bond?

This might mean nothing more than joint snacks every few weeks or a concerted effort among JAs from one entry to get to know first-years in the other, but I think that it might go a long way in giving more timid first-years from different entries a better chance to get to know each other more closely. Although most first-years feel completely comfortable walking through a neighboring entry in March, there might be many who wouldn’t feel as comfortable doing the same thing in October.

In my opinion, the entry and JA systems are some of the most important aspects of the College, yet we shouldn’t deceive ourselves into thinking that they are the best things for every incoming frosh.

I think that by enlarging the comfort zone for first-years, we can give them a chance to feel more comfortable in the broader community while maintaining some of the best things about the entry system, like having a place to call home – and really hot JAs like me.