OA, CA may see changes

With more and more incoming freshmen participating in Outdoor Action and Community Action, the University is considering ways to expand its pre-orientation programming and possibly encourage all students to attend a session.

Ideas for possible new pre-orientation programs, and perhaps a way to ensure that all freshmen are on campus before the official move-in date, are still in the works, University officials said.

However, the University took steps this year to shift the beginnings of orientation activities to Sept. 3 — when students participating in OA and CA arrive on campus — from Sept. 10 — when upperclassmen and freshmen not participating in the pre-orientation programs arrive — indicating that more students might be encouraged to attend pre-orientation programs in upcoming years.

“There were a number of things that they tried to do differently this year in terms of messaging,” Outdoor Action Director Rick Curtis ’79 said. He noted, for example, that in the past, parents were often confused by the fact that the residential college reception for parents occurred on the official move-in day, while many of them came to drop off their kids on the pre-orientation day.

“It was sending an odd message,” Curtis said. “We often got questions about, ‘Well, should I come back on the 10th?’ One of the things they did was they changed that schedule.”

According to one student who worked for the OA Command Center this past summer and asked to remain anonymous because he or she was not authorized to speak on the matter, Curtis told upperclassmen OA leaders that the University was “trying to get everyone here early” and was considering adding an additional arts-focused pre-orientation program to accommodate students who were not interested in either OA or CA.

Curtis directed questions on plans to expand pre-orientation programs to Dean of Undergraduate Students Kathleen Deignan, who said she did not have any information on the topic. Vice President for Campus Life Cynthia Cherrey said that the possible addition of an arts focused pre-orientation program was “just an idea.”

Deignan noted, however, that the University was making efforts to accommodate the increasing numbers of early arrivals among freshmen. The receptions for parents, she explained, had traditionally occurred on the second arrival Saturday because that was when most freshmen arrived. But as pre-orientation programs have expanded over the years, she said, it no longer made sense to keep the programs in the same order.

“Over the years, OA and CA have grown substantially, and we now know that the vast majority of freshmen arrive on (or before, in the case of athletes) the first Saturday,” Deignan said in an email. “This year, therefore, we flipped the programs that were traditionally hosted on the second Saturday to the first Saturday to reflect the fact that the vast majority of our students arrive on that day.”

Deignan added that the residential college offices were still open on Sept. 10 to meet students and their parents and handle questions that had been addressed in the receptions the previous week.

Barbecues in the residential colleges, at which incoming freshmen had the opportunity to meet residential college advisers, college staff and fellow students, were also held on Sept. 3, Curtis said.

“The things that happened this year were saying, ‘Most people are here on the third, so let’s think about how should the University structure things to handle the fact that most people are here that day rather than the 10th,” Curtis explained.

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Indeed, an overwhelming majority of incoming freshmen now arrive on campus on the first arrival Saturday; 790 students — over 60 percent of the 1,300-member class — participated in Outdoor Action, and hundreds more participated in Community Action or a fall sport.

“Curtis ... said that there’s only about 200 kids who don’t come to campus early, between fall sports, OA and CA,” said the student who asked to remain anonymous.

To facilitate future changes and make decisions about the future of orientation and pre-orientation activities, Cherrey said, the University is beginning to put together a committee to address recommendations made regarding orientation in the report issued by the Working Group on Campus Social and Residential Life last May.

“We are pulling together an orientation committee as a part of all the recommendations that came out of the Working Group on Campus Social and Residential Life,” Cherrey said in a voice message. “There will be a group of students and faculty that will be put together to look at all of those recommendations.”

While the report did not contain any specific recommendation to expand pre-orientation programs, it did make a number of recommendations about how to improve orientation in general, suggesting that OA and CA groups should stay in closer contact throughout their time at the University and that orientation activities should include more unstructured and less serious activities during orientation week.