More than 1,400 incoming students filled the Activities Building on Friday, Aug. 21. They came for the annual IUS Student Orientation Day.
The event lasted from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
The day’s events included an induction ceremony, academic sessions, social events and an orientation picnic and Student Involvement Fair.
Zach Turner, music production and technology freshman, said he felt welcome as a new student.
“It was very easy to understand what they were talking about,” Turner said. “They did make me feel welcome and I’m glad I came to this.”
Since the event was campus-wide, it took a lot of time and planning to organize everything. It was staffed by dozens of faculty and staff members.
Many of the helpers were students. There were about 30 student orientation leaders, who began training for orientation day in the spring semester.
One of the orientation leaders, Andrew Stillman, chemistry and pre-med senior, said the event was worthwhile.
“This whole experience is about helping students get acclimated to school, and that’s what I love doing,” Stillman said.
The academic sessions gave incoming students the chance to meet the faculty members in their prospective schools.
One of the social events was called Playfair® Activity, which was located in the Activities Building. It gave students a chance to meet other new students.
This event consisted of activities that would group students by name, birth month and major. All of the games had students talking to each other or doing something fun.
On of the attendees, Kody Roberts, said he didn’t like Playfair® Activity.
“I feel welcome and all, but it was silly some of the stuff we were doing,” Roberts said. “We could be more sociable by talking instead of dancing around and stuff.”
Back in University Center North and South, several organizations set up booths throughout the building. They provided information and handed out brochures and free stuff.
Nicole Galamin, biology and chemistry junior, said she was surprised by how the booth system worked out.
“I thought it would be slow, but I was surprised,” Galamin said. “A lot of the students were asking good questions. It wasn’t like the other times I’ve had a booth here.”
There were other events being hosted at the same time.
Two of them were the non-traditional student and transfer student open- house and parents’ session.
The final event was an orientation picnic and Student Involvement Fair, which ended at 1:30 p.m. Attendees could pick up lunch in The Commons and go to the Student Involvement Fair for information on campus activities.
While the official event ended with the picnic, there were other optional orientation activities after 1:30 p.m.
Some of the other events gave students the chance to learn about Greek life, the IUS Library, UCard services, campus safety and information technology.
By JOSEPH DEVER
Editor
jwdever@ius.edu