Starting today and continuing until the end of August, the University population will swell with 3,300 new incoming students and their parents for summer orientation.
Led by 28 student orientation leaders, incoming first-year and transfer students will spend two days armed with University information packets, shuttling around Grounds from their accommodations at Hereford College. During one of eight sessions offered in July and one final session reserved for international and out-of-state students in August, new students will get a crash course in University life and an opportunity to meet some of their future classmates.
While the focus of orientation primarily is course enrollment and faculty advising, new students also will listen to student life panels, attend student organization open houses, establish e-mail accounts, take language placement exams and browse resource fairs.
New students also will attend presentations from the Honor Committee, University Judiciary Committee and Student Council, said Laurie Casteen, interim director of the Office of Orientation and New Student Programs.
"This is the first time many of the students will see the school," Casteen said. "We want them to feel part of it."
To make the traditional welcome address in Old Cabell Hall more school-spirited, orientation staff have "revamped the entertainment to make the address more lively" and include performances by a cappella groups at each of the nine summer sessions, Casteen said. The address still will include a speech from a member of the University's Board of Visitors, who will welcome students and primarily address the honor system, Casteen added.
Parents also will attend many of their own informational meetings, including special panels concerning housing, meal plans, financial aid, safety issues and the intellectual life of their children once they start school.
Orientation leaders have been preparing for the past week to greet incoming students. Their training has included information on course enrollment advising, diversity concerns, University history and different academic policies from each of the undergraduate schools. Orientation leaders also have attended many information panels with speakers representing everything from University Student Health Services to financial services to the University Police Department.
"I'm excited because, as orientation leaders, we get to be the new students' first impression" of the University, orientation leader Melissa Kahn said. "I think that we're a great team of very different individuals, and we're all really excited about our school, so we want to get [new students] off to the right start with being excited and happy to be here"
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