Coming to college, there are thousands of new faces and things to experience. In time, it all becomes routine, and faces in the crowd became classmates, friends or that drunk guy who puked in the elevator and soaked your roommate’s shoes in Keystone Light.
College brings a lot of new freedom, and using it responsibly is what will keep college a rewarding experience instead of those months you got really drunk.
That’s one of the biggest reasons schools employ orientation programs — to try and kick-start the learning process and give students a taste of the endless possibilities that college provides.
Two years ago, I came to the University of Idaho as a freshman and watched as the administration and a team of students tried their best to set guidelines for our newfound freedom. They herded us into Memorial Gym, where actors dramatized the college social scene and tackled big issues, such as alcoholism and sexual assault.
The presentation’s format made it hard for the information to stick. It worked on some level, though. The presentation helped new students realize these issues are real and apply to many college students. It’s a good start, but the Memorial Gym’s mugginess left more of an impression than the information conveyed.
Since then, UI has coupled the aforementioned assembly with a comprehensive three-hour long online course which covers much more than sexual assault and alcohol abuse. The class adds topics ranging from accepting alternative lifestyles to drug abuse, helping students appreciate harsh realities of adult life more than an hour-long assembly could.
The online orientation attempts to emulate a real college experience by simulating conversations and social situations. For example, one section covers meeting people with different worldviews by having students read dialogue about alternative lifestyles.
The drug and alcohol sections of the program provides good information and realistic expectations, which is great. It’s hard to convey the potential dangers involved with drugs and alcohol use in an assembly, but the online course leaves enough time to handle topics which need to be addressed with care.
However, the concentrated time commitment of the course may be more detrimental than a stuffy gymnasium. It risks turning good information to live by into that one thing everybody had to click through for hours during orientation.
Other universities save a week for orientation, which allows more time for forums, presentations and time to acclimate to the campus. UI should consider a similar week to allow for the information to come from actual people in the form of Q and A sessions — similar to programs like Drinking with the Cops. This would give the orientation more staying power and our campus will be better because of it.
Giving new students more time to ask questions and learn from their orientation leaders will never be a bad thing. Everything about moving to college is a little overwhelming, and giving more time for students to get comfortable is vital. People don’t even ask questions in lectures they’ve been attending for months. How are we supposed to expect anybody to ask the important questions the day they leave their friends and family for the first time?
Orientation programs can’t do everything and will never substitute learning from experience, but by simply adding a little more time to them, they can become substantially better.
Justin Ackerman can be reached at [email protected]