PEER GROUPS

People should help take care of one another. This is an all-level program, which means our learning community is comprised of a range of students from freshpersons to seniors, including transfer students.  One basis of your community will be the peer group.  Our experience is that the recipe for success includes a weekly meeting of 4-7 committed people, the sharing of food, and a home-like environment.

Choose one person from the peer group to be your “editor of first resort.”  He or she will read everything your write this quarter (except your morning pages).

Peer groups serve several purposes.  Among them are:

• Remember that the covenant requires attendance at all program activities and notification of the faculty in the event of an expected absence.  Also remember there are no “excused absences.”  But a person’s peer group should also know about a colleague’s absence.  Our interruption of the student habit of making up (uh … reporting) excuses for absences should open avenues for other sorts of responses to absences.
• Peer groups provide support for individual research projects and other written work.  All written work must be thoroughly reviewed by two colleagues before submission to faculty.  One colleague should be your editor of first resort; the other should be another member of your peer group.