ORONO – A program geared toward building a sense of community among first-year students at the University of Maine appears to have worked, and staff members say they intend to continue the effort next year.

The First Year Residence Experience clustered freshman students together to live in one area of campus while providing them with support services to give them a sense of community and belonging.

“We will know better next week in terms of statistics, [but] in regards to keeping students here on campus throughout their first year we’ve been much more successful this year,” UM Residence Life Director Tara Loomis said Monday. “The residence halls were at 97 percent capacity a couple of weeks ago, which is double digits over last year.”

The idea of grouping first-year students together is a nationwide trend that’s proving successful at campuses across the country.

“Research has shown us that first-year students, when they come to a campus, they need to have a sense of belonging,” Loomis said. “All first-year students come here with the commonality of being new.”

While clustering them in residence halls in one area of campus doesn’t necessarily cut down on the number of problems and incidents that sometimes accompany a student’s first experience living away from home, it makes it easier to identify and respond to situations if needed, Loomis said.

“We’ve increased staffing in those areas [and] we made an effort to get to know these students, so it’s easier to see a student that might be headed down that path,” Loomis said.

Nearly the entire 2,105-member Class of 2011 – the largest group ever to enroll at the state’s flagship university at the start of an academic year – started off the year living in one area of campus.

The new class was approximately 9 percent larger than the cohort that enrolled at UM last fall and nearly 82 percent were Maine residents. The number reflects an adjustment to comparative figures that discount students who enrolled at University College of Bangor when it was affiliated with UM before 1995.

“It’s done a lot to create a community in the first-year group,” UM Dean of Students Robert Dana said Monday. “It’s really given them a sense of cohesion that wasn’t always easy to achieve in a large first-year class.”

Instead of students having to seek out programs on campus, many events and services will be brought to them. First-year students also were given access to a Web site geared toward their needs that lists resources, activities and events that might interest them.

The idea is to provide students with the same bonding experience that fraternities and sororities offered years ago, UM President Robert Kennedy said in an interview last fall.

Throughout the year, faculty and staff have held sessions to help students study, navigate campus, and meet financial aid deadlines.

“We also did some programs about responsibility,” Loomis said, noting one called How to Survive Friday Night that included information about assigning a designated driver and not leaving friends alone when you go out.

“It was a popular event that we did a couple of times throughout the semester,” Loomis said.

Dana agreed, noting that there has been a reduction in the number of alcohol-related incidents and residence hall damage.

“We believe that that’s a very significant byproduct of a better-cohered community, plus clear expectations,” Dana said.

Last Friday there was a barbecue to end the year, and more than 500 students were served late-night breakfast from 10 p.m. to midnight Sunday.

But not all students see the program as beneficial and had suggestions on how to improve things.

“I personally am not a fan of the First Year Residential Experience,” first-year biology major Nyssa Gatcombe said in an e-mail interview. “I believe it gives us a disadvantage going into the other residence halls next year. We haven’t really developed much beyond high school because there is no need.”

Gatcombe isn’t in many classes with her first-year peers, and said the only upside to the program is its location. She lives in Gannett Hall, which is near Hilltop Dining Commons, the new recreation center and Cutler Health Center.

“I do believe the [First Year Residence Experience] has potential, but not as a mandatory way of life,” Gatcombe said.

Loomis agreed that some things need to be worked on, such as increasing the involvement of upper-class mentors and raising the number of first-year students who participate in the events the residence experience offers.

“It’s going to take several years,” Loomis said. But by the time the Class of 2011 graduates, UM officials hope to have a better idea of how to help students through the transition from home to college. The program will continue to be evaluated over the summer, and should be even stronger next year, Dana said.

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