From participating in traditions like the Coke Toast to leading discussions on the college experience, orientation leaders (OLs) welcome new students to Emory University’s Atlanta as they transition to life in college. However, going forward, the OL program will “no longer operate,” according to a Dec. 4 email sent to 2025 OLs from Emory administrators.
Associate Director of Orientation and New Student Programs Heather Mann and Executive Director of Student Centers and Engagement Lydia Washington sent the Dec. 4 email, explaining that the University made the change to better support the new student experience.
“This evolution of our first-year program comes after several years of conversations with students, faculty, staff, and senior leadership about how we can more cohesively support our new students in making and maintaining connections,” Mann and Washington wrote.
Going forward, sophomore advisors (SAs) and resident advisors (RAs) will “play a more central role” in student orientation, according to Mann and Washington. The change in orientation will take effect for the Fall 2026 semester.
Mann and Washington wrote that the new program will strengthen new students’ sense of long-term community.
“By integrating this mentorship role into the residential experience, we are creating an even stronger continuity of community and support for new students,” Mann and Washington wrote.
Assistant Vice President of University Communications Laura Diamond wrote in an email to The Emory Wheel that the new OL program will provide “year-long” support to first-year students.
“As part of this approach, the Office of Residence Life student staff positions, including Sophomore Advisors (SAs) and Resident Advisor (RAs), will be reimagined to play a more central role in welcoming, mentoring, and supporting incoming students, beginning during Orientation Week and continuing throughout their first year at Emory,” Diamond wrote.
Despite these changes to the First-Year Experience program, the Atlanta campus will maintain its transfer OL program. Additionally, Oxford College’s Student Involvement, Leadership, and Transitions announced in a Dec. 10 Instagram post that applications to join their OL program were open.
Although Emory administration communicated to OLs on Dec. 4 that they were ending Atlanta’s OL program, RA and SA applications had already closed on Nov. 17. SGA President Tyler Martinez (26C) expressed concern that people planning to apply for the OL program did not know it would be closed before the deadline and therefore did not have the opportunity to apply for RA or SA positions.
“We're hoping to have a meeting soon just to clarify some things, and hopefully at least the bare minimum for OLS, or people who wanted to be OLS would then be able to apply to be an RA or SA, because they weren't able to do so previously to the change,” Martinez said. “But we're hoping to clarify the logistics of this transition and hopefully make it more equitable.”
Martinez said he hopes to meet soon with Residence Life to clarify how these changes will impact current OLs. Student Government Association (SGA) Speaker of the Legislature Pranay Mamileti (26B, 26C), who is an RA, expressed concern that requiring RAs and SAs to take on OL responsibilities would create an unfair burden, especially with “no addition to their pay.”
“For the RAs that are in first-year dorms, the thought of giving them more work is genuinely absurd for the amount of stuff they have to do, the amount of s*** that they put up with, with no addition to their pay,” Mamileti said.
Grotjan said OL program coordinators told her the new program is “not a good idea.” Her primary concern is that RAs and SAs already have a heavy workload during Orientation Week and will not be able to give new students a proper welcome to Emory.
“They need someone to show them, ‘This is Emory, this is why we love Emory, this is all of those things,’” Grotjan said. “If they don’t have that support, they might not be able to be as happy or successful here.”
SGA President Tyler Martinez (26C) said the University’s decision erases the distinctions among RA, SA and OL responsibilities, which he said are important to the new student experience.
“I don’t think that people understand the value of being an OL, because a lot of what I’m hearing is also that OLs and RAs and SAs receive the same type of training,” Martinez said. “However, it’s very evident that they do very different types of work.”
SGA Vice President of Communications Kyra Sydney Caldwell (26C), a former OL, emphasized that many OLs enjoy guiding new students through the first steps of their college experience, adding that some are willing to continue supporting students even without compensation.
“Many of us would actually be willing to do it for free,” Caldwell said. “Personally, I wasn’t doing it for money. I was doing it because I understood how hard of a transition it was for me coming into college and being around with some people that I wasn’t familiar with.”
Jacob Muscolino (he/him) (28C) is a News Editor at The Emory Wheel. He is from Long Island and plans to major in History and Psychology. Outside of the Wheel, he is involved in Emory Reads and Emory Economics Review. You can often find Jacob watching the newest blockbuster for his Letterboxd, dissecting The New York Times and traveling to the next destination on his bucket list.
