UGAs often face similarly uncomfortable situations every year over big weekends while making rounds. Check-ins are part of the larger duties UGAs have during Homecoming, which also include organizing dinner parties and leading freshmen on the Freshman Sweep. Though some discontent exists among freshman UGAs over missing out on festivities, most take pride in the role they play in guiding freshmen through one of Dartmouth's most cherished traditions.
Tonight, UGAs will bring students from their respective floors to a cluster-wide pizza and face-painting party. UGAs in the River cluster lead freshmen to the Russell Sage cluster and then to the Choates, McLaughlin and East Wheelock clusters, picking up students along the way. The entire class marches as a group onto the Green, cheered on by upperclassmen and alumni.
Freshman UGAs are required to do one three-hour round through residential clusters to check on the safety of their students. UGAs patrol the dorms from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. in pairs.
Looking for loud music, breaking up parties with underage drinking and checking bathrooms, lounges and laundry rooms for students who may be sick or unconscious are among their duties. Because rounds prevent UGAs from participating in some portion of the Homecoming celebrations, the assignment of shifts is contentious.
"There is definitely a little bit of a squabble," Porter said. "Of course, the seniors always want the best shifts because it's their last Homecoming we consider the best shifts to be on Thursday night, so you can still partake in the Homecoming festivities on Friday and Saturday."
Rachel Funk '15, a freshman UGA in Fahey residence hall, explained that seniors' demands may go unanswered.
"Oftentimes it is just completely random [UGAs] just pick numbers out of a hat," Funk said.
Some UGAs also dislike rounds because they produce resentment among residents. "The problem with things like rounds is that they end up being one of the things that make us seem like RAs at other schools," said Sebastian DeLuca '14, a UGA in the Gold Coast cluster. "Residents end up not liking their UGAs and see them as enforcers rather than what they really are, which is people trying to strengthen residential communities."
UGAs worry that they will run into more dangerous drinking situations than usual due to the new policy that prohibits freshmen from entering fraternities until after Homecoming.
"In fraternities, it's traditionally harder to get access...to hard alcohol, because there [is] a culture around drinking beer as opposed to taking shots," DeLuca said. "The problem is, since that won't be an option, there's going to be a high volume of people still partying, but they're going to be in the dorms. So a lot of UGAs, myself included, feel that there is going to be a lot more high-risk drinking thanks to this new policy."
Funk noted that the problem is an old one.
"It's not as though this is a new concern," Funk said. "We don't know if there's going to be anything worse this year."
Ultimately, UGAs said they find some humor and surprise in their rounds that make their task more bearable.
"The funniest thing as a UGA is trying to figure out who is super enthused about Dartmouth and who is just totally drunk," DeLuca said. "With flair [and] with the bonfire, you can't tell half the time who is ragingly drunk or who is just really excited."
