Current students reading this have probably participated in the heated Mission Park vs. Frosh Quad debate while at the College (Personally, I stand by Mission). This fall, the debate is no more — Currier Quad (officially known as Berkshire Quad) has now replaced Mission Park as first-year housing, a decision made to accommodate the increasing size of the first-year class. Half of the first-year class now lives in one of the five Currier Quad buildings: Currier Hall, East College, Fayerweather, Fitch, and Prospect.
It’s not just first-years who are adjusting to a new environment. This year’s Junior Advisors (JAs) must contend with creating entry communities in spaces that have not served as first-year housing since 2006. The Record checked in: What has their experience been like so far?
Orion Carrera ’27, a JA for Currier 0-1 — an entry composed of first-years living on both the basement and first floor — is responsible for 29 first-years. According to Carrera, the first-floor common rooms in Currier are not large enough for the entire entry community.
As a result, Carrera said that he and his co-JAs hold entry meetings in Currier Ballroom. “I think this is unique because the ballroom is essentially a ‘freshman space’ in the sense that other JAs can use the space for [first-year] events,” Carrera said in an interview to the Record.
While Carrera has not faced any logistical issues with organizing meetings, he worries that the ballroom could be too spacious for meaningful bonding opportunities between his first-year students. “The ballroom is large and there isn’t really furniture in there right now,” Carrera said.
“It’s too big to be really used in the same way as a cozy Mission common room,” he continued.
In addition to unconventional spaces, the change from Mission Park to Currier Quad has introduced unconventional entry sizes. This year, Fitch House is an entry community with 42 first-years. Even more shockingly, East, which has 27 doubles and seven singles, is one 61-student entry — almost double the size of a typical Frosh Quad entry. Four JAs lead the entry, making the JA-to-student ratio similar to those of other entries.
According to the East JAs, the large entry size has not posed any challenges with holding entry snacks and meetings. “People come in and out, and so we might have 20 to 30 in the room at any one time, but it hasn’t felt too tight,” Harlan Warnsman ’27, a JA for East, told the Record.
In fact, the spacious hallways in East have fostered an environment for greater community bonding, according to Warnsman. “If you live in the A section of the first floor of Sage Hall, it’s going to be difficult for you to connect with the person who lives in the F section,” Warnsman said. “Whereas here, because the hallways are completely open, it makes it easier for people to know who’s living on the opposite side of the hallway and connect with those people.”
To prepare for the abnormally large entry, the East JAs got creative to learn all of their first-years’ names before they arrived on campus. “We created a game for us to learn names before the first-years even arrived,” Warnsman recalled. “I remember cars pulling up to the WCMA [Williams College Museum of Art] circle and seeing first-years get out of their cars. I knew their names [and] who they were just by a photo and practice.”
Despite Warnsman’s initial concerns about how to form a tight-knit community with 61 first-years, he said that the large entry size allowed students to meet more of their classmates. “People have been able to find a buddy or two […] to go through the entry experience with, hang out with at snacks, and attend entry programming,” Warnsman said.
In contrast to Fitch and East, entries in Prospect are divided based on floor and only have 20 first-years each — less than the typical size of a Frosh Quad entry.
Prospect JAs say they appreciate the small size. “I think that this new entry system at Prospect works really well,” Nicky Wahab ’27, a Prospect JA, told the Record. “It may not sound like much of a difference, but I found that I’ve had close conversations with all of my frosh already.”
While the Prospect common rooms are large enough to fit the entire entry community, JAs there noted a different challenge: Students can only unlock their rooms by swiping their IDs. “So if you leave your ID in your room when you go to the bathroom, you’ve got to wait and call CSS [Campus Safety Services],” Wahab said. “In the 10 days or so the first-years have been here, there’ve already been over 150 students locked out.”
Amid the ups and downs of the switch from Mission to Currier Quad, the current first-years and JAs are proud of the communities they’ve created. “Something really nice about Williams College is that everybody’s first year experience is a little bit different, and it helps to make an interesting and diverse campus community,” Carrera said.
“I think no matter what, in any entry, you’ll have good JAs to support you.”
