The MOSAIC program for new student orientation will take place during regular orientation this year and include a yearlong mentor/mentee program.The MOSAIC program is no longer a preorientation program for which interested students must arrive on campus early. This year the program will begin Aug. 25 during regular orientation in order to provide interested international students, athletes, community advisors, orientation leaders, as well as students involved with the Student Support Services Program and Transitional Year Program, all of whom are usually engaged in other programs during preorientation, the opportunity to participate, according to Director of Community Living for the First and Sophomore Year Michelle O'Malley. Preorientation began on Aug. 23 this year.

Additionally, the mentor/mentee program will engage a mentee with both a student and faculty mentor at least once a week throughout the year, according to Diversity and Social Justice Coordinator Andrew Mandel '11. "A MOSAIC mentor is sort of like an orientation leader, but instead of just for orientation, [the MOSAIC mentor] is kind of just for the whole year. It's sort of like a one-on-one mentoring experience," Mandel said. Intercultural Center Director Monique Gnanaratnam added that MOSAIC, which previously did not serve as an acronym, now stands for Making Opportunities for Social Adjustment Interaction and Connections.

Students interested in participating in the 2009 to 2010 MOSAIC program were required to complete an online application. The program will begin Aug. 25 with the orientation resource workshop, "What's MOSAIC?" There will be an on-campus retreat Sept. 13 during which students will take part in seminars on leadership and diversity, according to Mandel. Mandel stated that MOSAIC participants will be assigned to student and faculty mentors at the end of the retreat. "From there, we'll have programs throughout the year that will help them with their adjustment, transition," O'Malley said.

O'Malley explained that the MOSAIC program was re-evaluated after it was observed that the program only attracted between 30 to 40 students and did not allow students who would be engaged in other programs during preorientation to participate. "In the past, MOSAIC had established this unity among this 40-odd students and we said we were going to have 'MOSAIC Moments' throughout the year, but it never really happened that way," O'Malley added, explaining that students became busy with other activities during the year. "MOSAIC Moments," which are events for MOSAIC participants, will now be mandatory programs, such as on-campus ICC lectures, according to Gnanaratnam.

"One criticism of the MOSAIC program in the past was that it was just a three-day orientation program and that was sort of it," Mandel said. By encouraging MOSAIC participants to interact with the Brandeis community through the mentor/mentee program, O'Malley believes that "it's probably going to keep that feeling of the orientation-type program throughout the year." Gnanaratnam added, "This is an opportunity for us to address and to take a look at some of the critical things students deal with in the first six weeks they come to Brandeis University."

O'Malley said that it also made more sense to spend the MOSAIC participants' mandatory orientation fees, set at $185 per new student, over the course of a year-long MOSAIC program rather than over a few days.

Jordan Warsoff '11, who was a MOSAIC participant as an incoming first-year as well as a MOSAIC leader last year, said that he found the program very interesting. Warsoff noted that although the MOSAIC program strove in the past to continue throughout the year, "MOSAIC Moments," in his opinion, have been minimal. He added that the program could potentially be better this year as it opens up to the rest of the campus.



- Hannah Kirsch contributed reporting