Ali Jackson | The only time stalking should come naturally

There are 11 Penn freshmen who think I'm stalking them.

And I'll be honest - I kind of am. Over the summer, I sent each of them no fewer than 12 e-mails and then called all the ones who didn't respond. Since school started, I've contacted them about five times each and even hung around their dorms during New Student Orientation.

But don't worry - you need not alert the authorities.

I'm their peer adviser.

All soon-to-be College freshmen are assigned an upperclassman to be their peer adviser. This student, in return, is assigned a group of about 10 pre-freshman. All of these future Penn students can send their questions to their older peer, who either answers them or e-mails them on to their pre-major adviser over the summer, so they know what to expect at Penn or with college life in general.

During NSO, freshmen have lunch with their peer adviser and attend several College events with them. But once NSO ends, most often, the adviser-advisee relationship does as well. While peer advisers e-mail their freshmen periodically throughout the first semester, they do not tend to get responses.

Pre-registration over the last two weeks exemplified this trend for me and my advisees. Over the summer, I e-mailed back and forth with nearly all of my freshmen and even had a few lengthy phone conversations. At the beginning of school, I checked in on them every so often and always got a high percentage of them e-mailing me back.

However, my most recent e-mail was met with stunning ambivalence. Of my 11 advisees, only one responded to my pre-registration message. I was shocked, considering the tough decisions they have to make during this process. Sure, all of them have to see an actual adviser before choosing classes, but a faculty adviser won't tell you which professor spits when he talks, which class has a ridiculous curve or which teaching assistant will say on the first day, "I'll teach you math, and you teach me English."

Your peer adviser will.

College senior and peer adviser Dan Feldman agreed. "The advisees don't take advantage of the upperclassmen as much as they should," he said. "We know the ins and outs of Penn. But they don't know how much we know."

Freshmen don't realize how much their peer adviser can help them, so they do not seek their advice - and in not seeking advice, they can't realize their peer adviser's value. It's a vicious circle.

Assistant Director of Freshman Services Katrina Glanzer has been in charge of the peer-advising program for three years. "A lot of being an advisee is being able to take the initiative yourself and let someone know when you have a question," she said, adding that she is working with the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education to help "create more personalized encounters between adviser and advisee." This would make asking those questions less awkward for the freshmen.

College freshman Sharon Her sees value in this approach. She said that she "usually responds" to the e-mails her peer adviser sends, but that most people do not. She felt that freshmen would be more inclined to reply if they had a stronger connection to the advisers.

Besides not feeling comfortable talking to their adviser, many freshmen feel that they don't need any help. College freshman Marshall MacNabb said, "I was pretty on top of things, so I didn't need to respond." And although this may be true for some, many freshmen only think they're on track.

Recently, I was speaking to a freshman about studying abroad. She wanted to do it but had just switched from taking French all through high school to taking Spanish. When I informed her that you need a certain language proficiency to go to a non-English-speaking program, she was shocked. Luckily, pre-registration hadn't ended yet. Where was her peer adviser? She hadn't spoken to her.

In fact, of the 30 College freshmen I spoke to, a mere eight knew their peer adviser's name. Apparently, a more personalized relationship between advisers and advisees is in order - a simple round of the name-game would be a good start.

It is definitely tough to get freshmen excited about interacting with someone they've never met, but, hopefully, the peer advising program and SCUE can figure out a way to do it - whether it be a higher concentration of advising events, a stronger emphasis on the social aspect of the adviser-advisee relationship or events stretching beyond the confines of NSO.

In any case, peer advisers must make themselves more known, and freshmen must take advantage of the incredible resource an upperclassman is. So, advisers - go forth and stalk. And, freshmen - don't get too freaked out.

Ali Jackson is a Wharton and College sophomore from Cardiff, Calif. Her e-mail address is jackson@dailypennsylvanian.com. All Talk and One Jackson appears on Mondays.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.