Charge
The JA Program Working Group is charged with evaluating the Junior Advisor Program model at Williams College. This evaluation should be attentive to:
- The needs of first-year students;
- The needs of juniors/student leaders and the challenges of recruiting a robust and representationally diverse JA cohort each year;
- The strong history and culture of autonomy of the JA program;
- The special challenges posed for minoritized and marginalized first-year students and student leaders; and
- Robust engagement with current students.
The Working Group should deliver a set of recommendations addressing if and how the College should evolve its student leadership model in first-year housing and residential life moving forward, including, but not limited to, (1) what alternative approach(es) the College may consider taking to ensure the long-term sustainability of its first-year housing student leadership model; (2) what additional enhancements or refinements the College should consider implementing to improve student experience and success; and (3) a strategy for the periodic (re)assessment of the JA Program or its successor model.
The Working Group will consult with select JA alumni during its process, and will deliver its final recommendations to the college’s Board of Trustees in Spring 2025.
Members
- Bilal Ansari, Assistant Vice President for Campus Engagement and Director of the Davis Center
- Josie Catalano, First Year Area Coordinator, Office of Campus Life
- Jackson Davis ’25
- Daniel Greenberg, Assistant Professor of Physical Education and Men’s Tennis Coach
- Kate Jensen, Associate Professor of Physics
- Gretchen Long, Dean of the College (committee co-chair)
- Daria Lukinova ’26
- Jeff Malanson, Senior Associate Dean for Administration, Finance, and Strategy (committee co-chair)
- Carly Rieger, First Year Area Coordinator, Office of Campus Life
- Mark Robertson ’02, Assistant Vice President for College Relations
- Doug Schiazza, Senior Associate Dean for Campus Life
- Christina Walsh, Associate Dean of Students and Dean of First Year Students
- Ray Wang ’25
The JA Program Working Group Wants Your Input
The college has launched a year-long JA Program Working Group that is charged with evaluating the JA program model at Williams. The working group is interested in hearing from students and other members of our college community about what they currently see the role of the JA as being and, as the needs of our first-year students change over time, what they think the role of the JA could or should be in the future. (All ideas, big or small, are welcome!)
If you have thoughts, please share them with us! You can email the co-chairs of the working group, Dean of the College Gretchen Long and Senior Associate Dean for Administration, Finance, and Strategy Jeff Malanson, or you can fill out this form.