Head Sponsors Announced
By Conor O'Rourke
News Associate

The Class of 2007 began to take shape this week as the three new head sponsors were announced after a rigorous selection process three weeks in the making. Christina Elmore '04, Tony Forte '04, and Andres Lopez '04 were chosen from a highly qualified applicant pool of three current sophomores and seven current juniors to succeed head sponsors Alex Minshew '03, Meredith Small '03, and Jason Torres-Rengel '03.

"The most challenging part is trying to choose just three," said Associate Dean of Campus Life Frank Bedoya. Three is the number that corresponds to the three different freshmen housing zones, Mudd-Blaisdell, Harwood/Lyon, and Wig, with one head sponsor presiding over each.

All ten of this year's candidates endured an application process that consisted of three rounds of interviews - from a large group, to a panel, to a final one-on-one with Bedoya himself. "Although we first look at each candidate individually," said Bedoya, "the deliberations focus on the team and matching individual strengths with variety in background, knowledge, interests and ideas."

The selection of Elmore, Forte, and Lopez was the latest in an unbroken string of unanimous decisions made by a committee comprised of Bedoya, Director of Housing Deanna Bos, the three current head sponsors, student at large Starr Cordell '03, and RA representative Sheila Vasantharam '03.

While Forte and Lopez both served as sponsors their sophomore year, this will be Elmore's first involvement as a leader with the program. Having served on the Queer Mentoring Program for the past couple of years, Elmore believes that her lack of sponsor experience will be an advantage. "I think that having not been a sponsor I might be able to ask the questions of 'why are we doing this,' that have never been asked before," said Elmore.

Responsibilities for the three will be put into effect almost immediately, since sponsor applications for next year are due on February 24. Then comes sponsor selection in the spring, housing selection over the summer, RHS and sponsor training in August, and a year's worth of head sponsor responsibilities after that. "It will be an extraordinary time commitment," said Lopez. He added, however, "The job will be incredible. We'll learn things no other job could teach."

While Forte believes the job will benefit both his personality and his personal growth, his goal is to see the sponsor program grow in similar ways. "[The sponsor program] should give people the vocabulary and comfort to talk about sensitive issues with different people in their lives." Forte added that he had hoped for better preparation from his sponsor training experience regarding this issue.

Lopez would like to see a tighter bond between the sponsors and the various mentoring programs such as Office of Black Student Affairs, Chicano/Latino Student Association, and Asian-American Mentoring Program. "In the past there was a big divide between [the sponsors and the mentoring programs], almost hostility. They should be working with each other, hand in hand. Both of them together are what really made my freshmen year experience."

Elmore concerns herself with the new issues that the head sponsors will face in the upcoming year, such as whether to maintain Freshmen Row and whether to continue to cluster substance-free housing or to integrate it completely with the non-substance-free sponsor groups. Elmore believes these new issues will be made even more difficult by the necessity of dealing simultaneously with the administration, the RHS, and the students. "We have to find a way to balance all these." Even more importantly, she added, "we must serve as a link between them all."

The link has already been established between the three new head sponsors. Over a celebratory and bonding dinner on Monday, Lopez and Elmore -- virtually strangers before the meeting -- had already made plans for their next encounter. "I asked her to go skydiving," said Lopez of Elmore. Despite the quizzical and perhaps panicked look with which Elmore responded, this team has already set the tone for the thrill ride that the Class of 2007 will surely experience.