After three months of meetings, deliberations and petitions, first-year counselors heard the news: their compensation packages would now include full room and board.

In an email on June 30, Dean of Student Affairs Hannah Peck announced that the 2023-24 FroCos’ pay would be raised to include the full cost of room and board. The announcement came after FroCos began calling for higher wages back at their first meeting in March. 

“We can’t know what happened behind closed doors obviously, but it was pretty insane,” MeiLan Haberl ’24, a Pauli Murray College FroCo, said. “I was in several group chats, and they just sort of exploded with a kind of a combination of disbelief, delight, excitement and gratitude.”

The announcement came less than a week after Yale FroCos United, a group that describes itself as representing the full class of 2023-24 FroCos, sent a petition to the administration calling for full room and board as well as more communication with FroCos regarding major policy decisions. They sent the petition with 657 signatures, which included 80 percent of the incoming FroCo class.

While administrators did not say whether the increased wages will continue for future FroCo classes, United FroCos wrote in an announcement that they will “remain committed to ensuring Yale commits to full room and board for all future FroCos.”

“This effort is by no means limited to the 2023-2024 class of FroCos,” Cynthia Sutanto ’24, head FroCo for Pauli Murray, said. “I hope that we can continue pushing for greater transparency from administrators and encourage future FroCo classes to do the same.” 

FroCos had brought up concerns over wages as early as their first night of training on March 31. After the meeting, Peck wrote to FroCos that the administration would conduct an assessment of their pay and keep FroCos updated. 

University administration gave FroCos a $1,000 raise on April 21, and another raise on June 2 after seeing the “unusually large” size of the class of 2027. At the end of June, the University decided to expand pay to cover full room and board before the formal program assessment because of the “significantly larger” size of the class of 2027.

“Our hope has always been to move the program towards offering full room and board to all FroCos,” Peck wrote in her email to FroCos. “I want to stress that this represents a significant investment both from the college and from the university in the FroCo program.” 

Previously, FroCo’s wages were based on the FroCo team size for each residential college. According to the terms of the 2023-24 contract before the raise, “The larger the college team size relative to their first-year incoming class, the lower the expected hours, and hence, the lower compensation.”

In addition to FroCos, first years have access to other forms of advising, such as their residential college dean and peer liaisons. 

Every first year is also assigned a college adviser, who can help students choose courses and make plans for their first year. But even with this system in place, many students find it difficult to navigate advising at Yale, as sometimes their college adviser lacks the knowledge to make recommendations on courses and other academic opportunities. 

Some students prefer to seek out more informal advisers, like peer liaisons and FroCos, for help with classes and navigating the beginning of college.

“I go to my FroCo more because I developed a closer relationship with them throughout my time here where I feel comfortable enough to reach out to them about personal situations outside of just Yale life,” Michelle Lee ’26 told the News. “I also think since they’re still a student they have more perspective on the way things work currently.”

In her email to FroCos, Peck added that the administration still plans to conduct its review of the FroCo program this fall. While the pay raise to cover full room and board will remain, Peck wrote that FroCos should “expect some of the job responsibilities to shift” during the semester.

“It’s not really clear what the review of the position means or what us having input means, but our hope is to ensure that full room and board will go forward to future FroCos as well,” Haberl said. “I have huge amounts of gratitude to everybody who signed and shared. We genuinely could not have done this without a community effort.”  Full room and board costs $19,180 for the 2023-24 school year.