2008 Woodie Awards
Old Traditions Get Facelift
Kelsey Steele
Issue date: 4/28/06 Section: News
- Page 1 of 1
Incoming students can look forward to something different this year, now that New Student Orientation has been extended, and returning students might see a few changes in their Welcome Week, which Student Activities hopes will make for a better experience for all the students showing up to campus next fall.
While it's been up in the air for a while, the 2006 Orientation crew gave it a go to add a day to the front of Orientation, allowing it to start on Tuesday and last for six days. Junior Meagan Stephenson, one of the orientation coordinators, was excited about the change which she says is a response to student feedback from the past few years.
"All the feedback said [orientation week] was rushed, that there was not enough downtime, and a lot of people wanted more time to settle into their rooms. That's actually been a large complaint," she said.
Stephenson explained that orientation actually used to last for 10 days but was then compressed to five, so now they are just getting some of that time back.
"Before, we had a very crunched schedule not conducive to a comfortable, positive transition for students," said Director of Student Activities Dave Wagner. "Now we'll have more time for faculty advising before the trips, and more time for talking with the OR leaders."
Assistant Director of Student Activities Tonya Hale said there have also been a few changes made to the Welcome Week committee, most notably adding Hale herself as an advisor to the committee, which has been completely student-run in the past.
Hale said they also plan to revise documents about how to run Shirttails, and Welcome Week Chair junior Kent Thompson drafted a constitution for the committee earlier this month which he presented to Senate and was subsequently approved. Welcome Week now has more formal rules and guidelines than in the past, so students can look forward to a consistent and reliable committee year after year, without the procedural changes that have happened in the past. In recent years the appointment of the committee and other such things were done based on precedent or a convenient idea, instead of on a document that could be referred to in the future.
Hale said the committee is in place and plans will begin soon.
"We're meeting together soon to nail things down and hopefully people will do some fun and unique things this year," she said.
While it's been up in the air for a while, the 2006 Orientation crew gave it a go to add a day to the front of Orientation, allowing it to start on Tuesday and last for six days. Junior Meagan Stephenson, one of the orientation coordinators, was excited about the change which she says is a response to student feedback from the past few years.
"All the feedback said [orientation week] was rushed, that there was not enough downtime, and a lot of people wanted more time to settle into their rooms. That's actually been a large complaint," she said.
Stephenson explained that orientation actually used to last for 10 days but was then compressed to five, so now they are just getting some of that time back.
"Before, we had a very crunched schedule not conducive to a comfortable, positive transition for students," said Director of Student Activities Dave Wagner. "Now we'll have more time for faculty advising before the trips, and more time for talking with the OR leaders."
Assistant Director of Student Activities Tonya Hale said there have also been a few changes made to the Welcome Week committee, most notably adding Hale herself as an advisor to the committee, which has been completely student-run in the past.
Hale said they also plan to revise documents about how to run Shirttails, and Welcome Week Chair junior Kent Thompson drafted a constitution for the committee earlier this month which he presented to Senate and was subsequently approved. Welcome Week now has more formal rules and guidelines than in the past, so students can look forward to a consistent and reliable committee year after year, without the procedural changes that have happened in the past. In recent years the appointment of the committee and other such things were done based on precedent or a convenient idea, instead of on a document that could be referred to in the future.
Hale said the committee is in place and plans will begin soon.
"We're meeting together soon to nail things down and hopefully people will do some fun and unique things this year," she said.
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