Vaibhav Sharma, Staff Photographer

With the hiring process for the 2024-25 cohort of first-year counselors now in motion, the University told the News that it will extend the full room and board coverage it offered to this year’s class of counselors to future classes, too. 

The University provided the current class of FroCos with a one-time pay increase after the cohort sent a petition with over 600 signatures to the administration over the summer. The counselors had begun petitioning for higher wages in March 2023, and Dean of Student Affairs Hannah Peck announced in June that their compensation would include full room and board. However, increased compensation was not explicitly guaranteed to future FroCos in Peck’s initial announcement.

“The counselors have reported being very optimistic about the program, and they have been pleased with their new compensation of full room and board, which will continue with the next generations of counselors,” Associate Dean of Residential College Life Ferentz Lafargue, who is now in charge of the FroCo program, wrote to the News.

In their initial petition last year, FroCos demanded higher wages to cover all living costs and also sought more communication and transparency from administrators regarding major policy decisions. After FroCos raised concerns during their first training session, Peck told the counselors that the administration would conduct an assessment of the FroCo program structure and compensation and keep the counselors informed about its progress. In April 2023, after seeing the “unusually large” size of the class of 2027, FroCos received a pay increase of about a thousand dollars. Then, in June, Peck emailed incoming FroCos to tell them that the administration would grant full room and board to the current class and focus its assessment on how best to structure the program in the future — and what wages would therefore be appropriate. 

Lafargue wrote that the review is continuing through the spring semester, and administration “is still gathering information from the counselors,” so it can “provide them with the best support and hear their ideas for developing the program.”

But current Branford College FroCo Matthew Merritt ’24, one of four FroCos who served on a “FroCo Role Discussion group” with several College administrators, feels that the group’s meetings yielded “no actionable steps” and that there has been “little impetus to meaningfully change aspects of the FroCo role.”

He pointed out that at other institutions, such as Tufts University, resident assistants are provided a yearly stipend in addition to full room and board coverage.

“We’re not asking for the FroCo role to be changed, nor are we asking for added benefits for the current class of FroCos,” Merritt wrote. “We’re asking, instead, to be paid amounts comparable to FroCo-like employees at our peer institutions.”

For the 2023-24 school year, Yale’s room and board cost is $19,180. For counselors on full financial aid, “compensation is treated as job earnings with respect to financial aid awards,” according to the 2023-24 FroCo contract. Excess funds are given to counselors as a refund from the University — so whatever the difference between what a FroCo owes Yale, under the terms of their financial aid award, and what they earn as a FroCo is given to them through a check. Students on full financial aid, therefore, receive as pay the full value of Yale’s room and board, or $19,180 this year.

Prior to the current class of FroCos, counselors were paid a stipend that varied by residential college. Counselors in Timothy Dwight College earned $10,800, while FroCos from Silliman, Benjamin Franklin and Pauli Murray colleges made $12,200. FroCos required to live on Old Campus were paid $15,000.

Merritt said that full room and board compensation “went a long way in helping this year’s FroCo class” and granted him financial support that “greatly expanded” his opportunities.

Pia Baldwin Edwards ’25, who applied to be a FroCo, wrote to the News that full room and board compensation was a “great incentive to get FroCos to apply,” especially for students whose families may struggle to pay for Yale’s tuition.

“I want to be a FroCo because I am an older sibling and think I would be a good mentor/enjoy being a mentor for first years, whose shoes I have been in,” Baldwin Edwards wrote. “Another big part of my desire to be a FroCo is definitely the room and board compensation, which would help my family out a lot.”

Yale’s first-year counselor program was first established in 1938.