Peer Mentor Mess Up

High Point University scrambles to save the reputation of the Peer Mentor Program.

By: Emma Barnett

 

At High Point University, where talk of an extraordinary school can be heard, with a not so extraordinary peer mentor program.  The Office of Student Life at HPU is in awe after the feedback found in a previous article written by a student for a communication class project.

Students are at a loss without a Peer Mentor

            Freshmen at HPU are placed into a peer mentor group with about 10 to 15 other incoming students.  The peer mentor is a fellow HPU student who is supposed to be the freshmen’s “go to” person.  Somebody to show them the ropes and answer all the questions from meal plans to how you meet new people to the fun activities on campus.  In the past years, the peer mentor program has been amazing and very successful.  This year was looking like another successful year until Dean of Students, Paul Kittle was told was some disturbing news.

How It All Started

 

            Paul Kittle, still in his first year with High Point was excited to join team with such an established program.  

      "

--> Not to this level, no.  I mean, I knew, conceptually, what a peer mentor program is, or should be, -->  but I had never seen an institution have it, uh, developed to the level that High Point has developed it. And it has been about, what?  four years, I think, the program’s been here?" said Kittle. 
 
     This past September, Kittle was told that there were students that had peer mentors that they could not get in contact with or would not even remember their name.  One student had a one-on-one meeting with her peer mentor and the peer mentor couldn't remember what the student looked like and walked right past her. Students were not happy and Student Life was not happy either. 
      -->

      "If the students don’t feel a need for their peer mentor, and they’re not reaching out to them because they feel supported, they, they know where the resources are, they’re comfortable on campus, then it would, you know, other than being invited for a group activity, or a one-on-one meeting, they probably shouldn’t hear from their peer mentor other than every couple of weeks, through some form of communication.  And if they’re not, then I would certainly welcome them to bring that to our attention, ‘cause we do want our peer mentors remaining active, but no overbearing." said Kittle.

     So with four years under the peer mentor program's belt, there are still things that the mentors feel  can be improved upon and in a meeting with some mentors and the executive board, there were suggestions that were taken seriously by Keisha Boyd, Assistant Director of Peer Mentor Program. 

     Multiple peer mentors said that they wished for a more variety of events and ways to connect with their mentees. 

     "I feel like there needs to be more events geared towards freshman, I feel like at times they are overwhelmed with everything that this school has to offer and that makes them not want to come and interact with us. I just think they need things that are geared towards them and more personalized," said junior Meredith Beck, while filling out a form.

    

What Has Changed?

After the interview and feedback in September, Student Life took a long, hard look at the peer mentor program. 
 “We do a continual assessment of our programs; getting feedback from mentees as well as mentors and the Executive Committee.  This is a continual assessment and measures are taken to improve things,”  Gail Tuttle and Kittle said in a follow-up interview.        
Gail Tuttle is the Vice President of Student Life and has been with the school since 1985 remembers how the past years have differed from this year. Student Life wants to return the program to the way it was in the past and not the waste of time it has become.         
“Parents, as well as their students, view the Peer Mentor as a resource and guide to campus. Parents have commented that Peer Mentors are key in connecting their student to campus life, organizations, and networking with other new students.” Tuttle and Kittle stated.

One thing that the Peer Mentor program has improved upon is the way they contact their mentees. This year the Mentors had to fill out more paperwork so Student Life could keep a tab on how many times each mentor contacted their mentees as well as who shows up to which events and how their one-on-one meetings went. 

"While in the past years we did not have as many papers to fill out, it was definitely worth it because we could not be blamed if one of our mentees said we did not contact them. I think it also showed Student Life that we made a serious effort to make our mentees feel welcome," said Beck, as she was typing up a mentee report.

What to Expect Next Year

            When the peer mentor applications are available on January 9, 2013, Student Life is expecting to have a large response from the current freshmen class.  “Our goal is to increase our Peer Mentor team to 120 mentors so that groups can be smaller and even more personable.”  How does Kittle and Tuttle expect to get 120 more peer mentor if so many freshmen had a bad experience this year?

      "  If there were less mandatory events and smaller group sizes I would definitely fill out an application. I just think that sometimes the mentors spend too much time e-mailing and trying to get us to do things that I feel like we did not have time to figure things out on our own," said freshman Henry Howle.

Related Links

Peer Mentoring Resources

Peer Mentoring Research 

Guidelines for Mentoring Programs

Homesickness at School

Peer Mentor Programs, Do They Really Work?

By Emma Barnett

            Schools like High Point University are trying to help students feel at home by using peer mentor programs.  But is it really working?

            At HPU, being homesick is not uncommon.  The schools Office of Student Life is trying to help new students who are feeling the ailment that plagues college campuses around the world. 

            “Because the mentor/mentee relationship is a peer relationship, the mentor becomes one of the most likely people that a student will turn to in the event of academic difficulty, homesickness, intense life events or a medical crisis or death in the family.” Daniel Fusch, Director of Publications and Research at Academic Impression, an organization where the main interest is helping colleges handle the issues that directly impact students overall health and ability to graduate, explains on the AI website the role peer mentors have in students lifes.  After further discussions with students, the peer mentor role seems very different at HPU.

            “When I was a freshman my peer mentor was no help to me. That is what made me become a peer mentor,” said Meredith Beck, now a Junior, recalls her freshman year experience.  Beck is now in her second year of being a mentor.  “I wanted those kids to know that I would not only be a mentor but a friend and someone who knew what it was like to be homesick. I think the concept of peer mentor is great but when you had a peer mentor that was not involved with her mentees it makes it hard to go to your Mentor when you need to.”  Beck was not the only freshmen to have problems with her peer mentor.

            Hayley Robertson, a Junior and peer mentor remembers her freshman peer mentor, “I didn’t really get to know my peer mentor at all.”  What does the Office of Student Life look for in Peer mentors?  Why do they continuously pick people who are no help at all?

            “I haven’t actually experienced it yet, but I’ve been told…it is an application process, so students will apply to be a peer mentor, they will participate in an interview, and then the selection will be made as a combination between the… administrative staff and the student executive team… That we need to be very clear on is…what characteristics are we looking for in a peer mentor. And I can only presume that, that already exists on the application because we’ll be going through that process right now or they’ve gone through it in the past,” Dean of Students Paul Kittle explains. 

Kittle started with HPU in July of 2012.  Before HPU he was the Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life at Auburn University.  Kittle stated, “I knew, conceptually, what a peer mentor program is, or should be, but I had never seen an institution have it developed to the level that High Point has developed it.”

After speaking to a group of freshmen about their homesickness, Alex, Maria, Erika and Beth, described their first month at HPU.

            Alex, from Atlanta, GA, had an interesting story about her homesickness and her experience with the peer mentor program.  “I was away from home all summer.  I was staying with family, not like I ever saw them,” Alex explained that she spent the summer working for the United States Government at the Pentagon in Washington, DC., while staying in Northern Virginia with her Aunt and Uncle.  “Yeah. Having an internship and living 600 miles away from home two months before college.  Not really homesick.”

 The only thing Alex misses about home is her mother’s cooking.  Other than that, she explains how much contact she keeps with her parents, “I think my mom misses having me home more than I miss being at home. She'll call me every day and text me in between those calls. It's great that she's concerned about me, and I appreciate the thoughts behind her talking to me, but I also wish that she would take a step back. I've even talked to my dad about trying to convince her to stop trying to call me every day. I think my dad and I both have used the phrase ‘weaning her off’ talking with me all the time. I miss seeing them, yes, but I also do not have any problems going without hearing from home for longer bouts of time. If I need to talk to them, they're only a phone call away, and I'm fine with that.”  Alex is one of the few students who aren’t homesick.

            Other students like Maria, from Beallsville, MD stated, “My routine, I guess.  It’s just a really big change for me so I miss seeing my parents.  I miss waking up in the morning and having my mom wake me up and make breakfast for me.  I miss my dad, helping me with homework…and watching football games.  Yea, I miss my cat, Sméagol.”  Maria is the type of freshmen that programs like HPU’s peer mentoring is geared toward.  But, why then is Maria not getting the support she needs? If only the peer mentors were doing what they were supposed to do.

            Alex, Maria, Erika and, Beth each described the communication between themselves their peer mentors, “No. Not at all.”  Maria answered without any hesitation.  Erika stated, “I haven’t spoken to my peer mentor since my second day here.”  “I’m not really home sick, but I would feel comfortable going to [my peer mentor], but I just haven’t yet.” Beth stated. The response that was most shocking was Alex’s.  Who said, “I don’t even know if my peer mentor remembers my name.”  How can HPU expect these mentors to help students if they don’t even remember their names? 

            There are good peer mentors but they are far and few between. Beck explains, “I just think that freshman forget that we were once freshman to and we know what it is like to be homesick. While we are upperclassmen, I always tell mine that I still get homesick and I have been through this for three years. I feel like they think we do not understand them but we do which is why we are peer mentors. I love my job and helping them get involved and get adjusted to college is a big job but at the same time amazing!” 

            Every peer mentor should have the same attitude.  When will people learn that these students need them?  Students like Alex, Maria, Erika and Beth, in one way or another need the guidance of a peer mentor?

            Kittle addresses Alex, Maria, Erika and Beth’s statements, “Everyone’s going to deal with it differently…if there’s concerns on the new student’s part, we just need to know about it, ‘cause we will certainly, if something is not going well, we will take care of that, too, but as of yet, we haven’t received any concerns, but we will certainly be open to it, ‘cause I do want to know that they are transitioning and being supported as we envision the program.”

            If you are a freshmen and you are homesick, if you have reached out to your peer mentor or if you don’t feel comfortable doing so, know that you are not alone.  There are people just like Kittle in Student life who are there for you and want to hear from you.  So, please contact them, email them, go in and meet them.  Do not let yourself stay anchored to where you came from.  Let yourself become fully immerged in the High Point community.

            Jan Glidewell once said, “You can clutch the past so tightly to your chest that it leaves your arms too full to embrace the present.”

Online Story

No Call List has High Penalty  

Hefty fines for those who violate no-call list.  

     Imagine you get home from a long day of work.  You have just sat down for a nice dinner with your family. BRRING. BRRING. The phone rings. You stand up and walk over to the phone and answer. "Hello?"
     "Hello, I'm so and so from such and such.  I am looking for, (your name they mispronounce)."
Before you even have a chance to respond, "How are you doing tonight sir/mam?  Would you like to buy (normally something completely useless and that you've never heard of)?"

     Worry no more because Senate passed a unanimous vote on Wednesday that allows up to a $5000 civil penalty for any telemarketer who knowingly calls anyone on the no-call list . Anyone who receives more than one call from the same firm after being placed on the list can seek up to $5000 for each violating call by filing a complaint.

The Fine Print of the Law

     The measure, if passed would not take place until July 2003.  By January of next year, the attorney general must have established a no-cost method for citizens to join the list. Until July, citizens can avoid getting calls by telling each telemarketer to place them on its no-call list.  Part of the bill is going to fuse all the separate lists into one huge database.
The proposal also bans telemarketers from using technology that blocks caller-ID components on phones.  It also requires any e-mailed marketing messages to include either a return e-mail address or a toll-free 800 number citizens can use to tell the company to stop sending the messages.

Small Businesses in for Big Trouble

     Critics are concerned that the bill will rob small businesses of important ways to make sales.  But, the bill's sponsors rejected that claim. "The question is, when does my telephone become an extension of your business?" said Rep. Don Wells, D-Springfield.  Nevertheless, the critics succeeded in adding language exempting from the penalties businesses that make fewer than 100 such calls per week.  

Tables Might Tip on Ramirez

     In an unrelated development with even greater public policy ramifications, the Senate tabled a proposal that would place a tobacco money spending plan before the voters after and anti-abortion language was added to the measure
     The language, part of the ongoing fight to ensure that no state money goes to abortions, brought a compromise attempt from the governor. He offered to sign an accompanying bill with softer anti-abortion language.
     At the beginning of the session, Governor Ramirez, who is running for the U.S. Senate, made spending the money on health projects one of his major priorities. If the plan is derailed, he will be deprived of an issue to trumpet in the campaign.
     "If we want to be a state that continuously litigates over abortions, let's get with it, but if we want good policy, let's do that," he said.

Related Articles 

FCC Do Not Call List

Telemarketers ignore Do Not Call list

Coping With the Tall Traveler's Curse

 

If you feel cramped when you fly, imagine the anguish if you were tall.

For extra-tall travelers, the discomfort continues long after the flight, as their feet dangle off the edge of hotel beds, forcing some to position their bodies diagonally, and as they dance what one tall traveler calls the “shower limbo” thanks to too-low showerheads.

“I truly believe it’s a serious disconnect. I end up literally booking everything myself, travel agents haven’t a clue,” said R. J. Brennan, director of strategic workplace for IA Interior Architects in its Chicago office, who is 6-foot-8. “In economy, my knees are embedded into the wire of the seat pocket — I’m literally wedged in and can’t move. On some small planes, I have to physically get off the plane to take my coat off.”

But some relief is at hand, both in the air and on the ground. Two years ago, SeatGuru.com introduced airline comparison charts, allowing readers to see at a glance “seat pitch” — the distance between the back of a seat and the seat in front of it, and the best indicator of legroom — in different classes and aircraft.

One SeatGuru feature allows readers to rearrange the alphabetical airline list by seat pitch, making it obvious that the bigger seat pitches in domestic economy class — 34 to 36 inches — are on United, JetBlue, Delta Air Lines’ McDonnell Douglas MD-88 shuttle, Air Canada and Westjet. Since a seat pitch of only 29 to 30 inches is found in most airlines’ economy class, this is no small potatoes.

Recently, JetBlue reconfigured its planes to sell seats with 38 inches of seat pitch in six rows on its A320 fleet and the emergency exit row in its Embraer 190 planes for an extra $10 or more. (JetBlue’s other seats with up to 36 inches of seat pitch in certain rows, have no extra fee.)

In Premium Economy, offered by some airlines mostly on international flights, the discount British airline BMI is the hands-down winner, according to SeatGuru, with 49 inches of seat pitch on an Airbus A330-200.

Hotels provide a Solution 

The only hotel chain that seems to have staked out the tall traveler niche is Kimpton Hotels, which introduced its “tall rooms” with 96-inch beds, higher showerheads and higher door frames in 1995. Each hotel in Kimpton’s Hotel Monaco chain has about 20 tall rooms, said Steve Pinetti, senior vice president for marketing.

Kimpton, which even sells its extra-long beds for $2,595 at www.kimptonstyle.com, plans to add Tall Rooms with the custom-made Sealy Postulux 700 beds to most of its new hotels, he added.

Other hotels that have tall-friendly rooms are the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, which has 48 rooms with 96-inch beds in its Palms tower and fantasy tower. (The owners, the Maloof family, are sensitive to the height issue because they are the majority owner of a National Basketball Association team, the Sacramento Kings.)

The W Hotel Dallas has 95-inch beds, taller doorways and higher showerheads and Canoe Bay, a luxury resort in rural Wisconsin that has been used for corporate retreats, has 92-inch beds in three cottages, with plans for more.

But these hotels are exceptions. Some hotels have king-size beds The industry standard for king-size beds is 72 to 74 inches long (though a “California king” is 84 inches), and many have queen-size beds.

“There is no difference in the length of the bed, but a queen is so much narrower it makes sleeping uncomfortable,” complained Dan Sondhelm, a partner in SunStar, a financial services public relations firm in Alexandria, Va., who is 6-foot-4. 

Extra Leg Room Will Cost You a Pretty Penny

While many tall people say the travel industry seems to ignore them, they are not a tiny market. Five percent of men ages 20 to 74 in the United States are 6- foot-2 or taller, according to the most recent survey by the National Center for Health Statistics of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, conducted from 1999 to 2002.

Thomas C. Cambier, a 6-foot-8 lawyer at Hancock & Estabrook in Syracuse, N.Y., praised JetBlue for the roomy seats in its economy class. “Those few extra inches make all the difference in the world,” he said.

Mr. Brennan said he usually flew United’s Economy Plus, with higher-priced seats that offer up to five inches more legroom than its economy class, unless he is upgraded to first or business class, and he rattled off choice seats like the authority he is.

“Emergency exit row is a subtlety from airline to airline,” he said. “Often the extra legroom is in the row behind it. On a Boeing 737-300, you want the row behind the exit row, in the window seat. On a Boeing 757, a totally different configuration, it’s the exit row window seat.”

But paying a steep price for their height rankles some travelers.

“Special accommodations can be made, but often you pay more to get them,” said Colin Hutt, president of Primum Marketing Communications in Milwaukee, who is 6-foot-4. 

Doing the Shower Limbo

Being tall is not limited to men, of course. “The showerhead is so low I do what I call the ‘shower limbo,’ ” Ann Marie Gothard, the 6-foot director of global communications for Orbis International, a nonprofit group that treats blindness in developing countries, said of her hotel in Vietnam on a recent business trip. The mirror, she added, was “hung at chest-level, requiring me to squat down to see myself from the shoulders up.”

Related Links
 
 The New York Times

Too Tall To Fly? Passenger Forced to Stand for Entire Flight

Final Movie

Video Project Idea

I want to make a public service announcement about domestic violence awareness.  I think I want to have shots of "happy couples" and then have some stats about abusive relationships in college.  And then show the same couples, but show some kind of abuse (not like a guy beating a girl), but like something that shows there is abuse.  I feel very close to this because domestic violence awareness is my sororities philanthropy focus and I know several people who are or who have been in abusive relationships. 

Purse Thief