Starting next fall, orientation leaders (OLs) will earn a $600 stipend, marking the first time they will receive payment. Orientation and Transitions Programs Associate Director Carson Banks wrote in an email to the Wheel that the orientation budget will cover stipends for about 100 OLs.
“Providing compensation allows for more students to pursue peer leadership opportunities,” Banks wrote. “Students in leadership roles, including OLs and other pre-orientation program mentors, should not have to choose between working a paid summer job over returning to campus for professional development and leadership opportunities such as these.”
Banks added that OLs, who are all Emory University students, play a “significant” role on campus, leading both Emory College of Arts and Sciences and Oxford College first-year students through Orientation Week in August.
Shruti Balamurugan (24Ox), who applied to be an OL next fall and is waiting to hear if she got the position, supported the decision.
“As a student, I’m happy that they’re getting paid,” Balamurugan said. “It’s definitely going to make more people want to be OLs, and they’re getting the compensation they deserve.”
Madeleine Lepley (24Ox), who also applied to be an OL next fall and is waiting to hear if she got the position, echoed Balamurugan’s sentiment, stating that orientation leaders are the “first positive influence” for freshmen and can make a big impact on the beginning of their college experience.
As a part of their training, OLs prepare in the spring and then arrive to campus before the fall semester begins for Orientation Week.
"The huge amount of time and energy required to do it kind of warrants some sort of compensation," Lepley said.
However, Lepley raised concerns that the stipend may urge people to apply for the wrong reasons, causing some first years to have a negative experience with their OL.
Unlike some other institutions, Emory has not historically offered a stipend for their OLs. At the Georgia Institute of Technology, orientation leaders receive a “leadership stipend.” Among Emory’s peer institutions, OLs at Case Western Reserve University (Ohio) are paid $200, while undergraduate orientation captains at New York University receive $15 per hour.
Balamurugan explained that she loved her OL and hopes to play the same role for future students who might be scared while starting college.
“She really set the tone for my time here at Oxford,” Balamurugan said. "I kind of want to be the person who can help orient and just be that happy force on campus that everyone knows.”
