Welcomed changes

Shorter move-in week will prevent boredom

elcome Week, the gap between move in and the beginning of classes, gives students an opportunity to adapt to their new surroundings without the added burden of studying. Next year, incoming students will have one less day to situate themselves. Responding to student concerns that Move-In Week was too long, the Office of New Student Programs and University Housing wisely decided to shorten it.

A full week for move-in was a longer period than new students needed to acquaint themselves with Ann Arbor. Having already been exposed to the campus during orientation, students did not need an extra week to repeat the process.

What did new students do to kill the extra time? The University wanted to involve first-year students in social activities to make them feel more at home. There certainly were some good programs such as Maize Craze and Artscapade/Escapade which effectively accomplished this goal.

But few programs were this successful. The problem was not with the structure of these individual activities, but rather in the sheer number and repetitiveness of the events. Contrary to popular belief, there was a limit to the amount of pizza and Coke a student could consume in a few days. Sick of such programs, students were left to wait anxiously for the first day of school.

With the massive amount of extra time, students inevitably got themselves into trouble. They embarked upon their own orientation to University life. Some acquainted themselves with the Ann Arbor Police Department or DPS, earning MIP or UIP citations. The less fortunate got a tour of the University hospital. Ironically, in an effort to give students more time to adjust to university life, the longer Move-In week actually introduced them to a lifestyle that was very unlike a typical college day.

The new shorter week should help to alleviate some of these problems. With less idle time, next year's first-year students will finally feel more "welcome" than bored.