In spite of the incident this fall in which a UGA provided alcohol for his freshmen floormates in violation of his contract, the Office of Residential Life is planning no changes in the screening process of prospective advisors as the deadline looms for applications to residential positions.
"We haven't even talked about the fall incident in the application process. It's really hard to screen for that; every once in a while you're going to have someone who falls through the crack," Jeffrey DeWitt , the residential life area director for East Campus said.
According to DeWitt, existing measures are already in place that help prevent UGA behavioral violations. He said that structural supervision and training have a deterring effect.
"Ultimately there's no way to make sure that doesn't happen because it comes down to an individual choice," DeWitt explained. "One thing we're hoping to come through with the Student Life Initiative is to have a full-time staff that would help with supervision."
One criticism of the UGA program is that too few students seek residential positions, making the application process insufficiently competitive. Last year, three out of four students were accepted for the position.
According to DeWitt, who oversees selection, his office looks for applicants who are committed to working with their residents and who possess impressive communication and leadership abilities.
"Usually, most applicants have some of those qualities, but not all," he said. "I think it's just that people have different strengths. The one thing they do need to have is the commitment."
Despite this fall's alcohol incident, DeWitt asserted that ORL won't "delve into people's personal lives at all."
He said that his office conducts minimal screening of students, assuring only that they are not on academic probation and that they have not faced relevant disciplinary action at the College.
"We do look for people who are good role models, but we don't look if they drink a lot or not," DeWitt said.
Intended to prevent breaches of the UGA contract, the training for rising UGAs consists of five days before freshmen orientation in which UGAs learn about the College's resource centers and programming strategies in addition to participating in role-playing seminars.
DeWitt said that certain values are emphasized at the training. "We expect them to stay out of situations when they might be role-modeling bad behavior with their residents."
"We tell them that they shouldn't be drinking with their residents, that they shouldn't provide them with alcohol, and we also advice them to stay out of situations of potential sexual harassment," he said. "We do some informing about making smart choices, but we don't get real specific about it."
The interview sign-up date for prospective UGAs is March 28.
