Each year, students arrive on campus to complete New Student Orientation. They spend their time learning about the University and registering for their first classes. However, several variables may lead to changes in the programming, according to New Student Orientation Director Gabe Wical.
Orientation this year is shorter than years past, lasting a day and a half instead of the traditional two days, he said.
“Every year, we have a discussion about what the issues are that are facing us in the office and on campus [to plan orientation],” Wical said.
Planners may adapt orientation to accommodate changes in its budget, space needs and message delivery, according to Wical.
New Student Orientation, which is funded through student fees, last asked for a fee increase in the 2000-2001 school year, and its expenses have jumped $329,000 since then, he said, with only a $65,000 increase in revenue.
“We’re to the point now where we’re going to start going into the red with our program, which we can’t really do,” Wical said.
With increased costs in housing, staff and food, he said the NSO faculty has requested a fee increase and should find out in the coming months whether it will receive the request.
A student must pay $115 to attend NSO.
Tabitha Enoch, director of Orientation and New Student Programs at the University of Virginia, said her program will need a fee increase as well. Those students pay $190 to attend orientation.
“In light of budget cuts, we did have to cut some of the things that we typically offer,” she said.
Wical said space has also been a concern. With more students attending every year, there is less space available for all sizes of events.
One way to reduce costs and other current problems, he said, would be to reduce orientation to one day, but there are many options.
According to Wical, NSO faculty should be concerned with the program’s effectiveness, not about the time spent for orientation. It may be more effective to continue programs after the school year begins, he said.
Cory Andrews, a junior in political science and Spanish at UNC-Chapel Hill, said a problem at his orientation, Carolina Testing and Orientation Program Sessions, was the overwhelming amount of information in its two days.
“There was a lot of information they tried to throw at you at once while trying to immerse you,” he said. “I remember not retaining anything I learned.”
C-TOPS is a two-day program similar to NSO at N.C. State, but students sign up for any of the 14 sessions on a first-come, first-serve basis, and orientation leaders split them into major-oriented groups upon arrival, said Sharon Levine, a senior in journalism and public policy and an orientation leader at UNC-CH.
Each student is placed into a particular NSO session based on college and last name.
Michael Webster, an incoming freshman in computer science, said it would be helpful to have information spread out over a longer period than orientation, and Wical said that is a possibility.
Students may not be ready to hear everything that is necessary to say at orientation, Wical said, and they need to think of the transition period for students as more than just orientation.
“Orientation right now is the only time when the University has a captive audience,” he said. “Where University messages go, there’s really no structure for providing messages on a long-term basis.”
Starting last fall, an undergraduate student transition task force worked to find ways to distribute messages effectively during a student’s first year, Wical said.
According to Wical, there is movement to get more campus involvement in the direction of NSO.
