Outdoor Action moves to campus

At the office’s grand opening on Thursday afternoon, OA director Rick Curtis ’79 said that the program’s popularity inspired the move. “It really made sense because of how OA has grown and changed over time and how many more people it serves now than it did then,” he said. “It really made sense to have it be back on the main campus and part of the Campus Life office.”

Vice President for Campus Life Janet Dickerson was instrumental in securing this move. “It was her feeling that OA has taken on such an important role for orienting over half the freshman class,” Curtis explained. “It really made the most sense for it to be part of a major University office.”

Dickerson, who will be retiring this June, said that the transition has been in development for many years, with Curtis first approaching her when she came to the University in 2000.

“I think it’s been a dream of his for some period of years, and then it became a vision, and then it became a goal,” she said. “And now this is unbelievable; it’s a reality. So we’re just really excited about it.”

Curtis said that the change of location has already benefited OA and will continue to help the program in many ways. “We’ve only been here for two days, but leader trainers who are planning for [leader training trips] at the end of the year were able to stop by, do some computer work, plan the menus, you know, instead of walking almost 30 minutes down to the old office,” he said, referring to the headquarters’ previous location at 350 Alexander St.

Before the move, Curtis said, he had to schedule rooms in Frist Campus Center for on-campus activities, which sometimes proved difficult. “Being able to just interact a lot more will make it a lot easier to run the program and to have more things happen.”

Curtis said he also foresees OA becoming a larger presence on campus and a partner with other groups. OA’s physical removal from campus “made it more difficult for people to kind of think about OA and go, ‘Oh yeah, why didn’t we connect with OA around that?’ ” he said.

This is not OA’s first move in its 36-year history. OA was under the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students before joining the Princeton Blairstown Center in 1996.

OA leaders attending Thursday’s event said the move is an exciting step for OA. “I’m really excited,” Cara Liuzzi ’12 said. “I think it’s an amazing thing for the program of Outdoor Action. I think it’s really awesome that we’re being more integrated into campus life because OA gives so much to the community, and now it’s like a recognition of that.”

Laura Kergosien ’10, who worked as a freshman trip coordinator last summer, said she appreciates the move, since “you can never actually get down to the other office.”

Ben Oseroff ’11, an OA trainer, predicted the move would improve OA’s campus presence.

“I’m really excited about this,” he said. “I think it’s a great move for the program, and thanks a lot to Vice President Dickerson for making this happen for OA.”