First Late Night welcomes freshmen to campus

As the stress and excitement of freshman move-in day subsided Friday night, Week of Welcome kicked off with the freshman ice cream social and a night of fun and games at “Welcome Back to Late Night.”

In true UConn fashion, students were presented with UConn Dairy Bar ice cream and an assortment of topping and encouraged to mingle with other new students. After the ice cream social, students moved from Fairfield Way to the Union to experience the first Late Night of the year. As usual, karaoke was offered, as well as glow in the dark mini golf, human bowling, and virtual horse races. For the crafting types, airbrush drawstring bags were up for personalization, and many students took advantage of the opportunity to get some monogrammed gear. Photo whiteboards were also available for the making and students took pleasure in posing with their friends or roommates for a silly whiteboard.

Other than gimmicks and a good time, Late Night was the first opportunity most freshmen had to meet their peers and bond as the university’s class of 2016. The activities provided the platform for social engagement with students sharing their move in stories and marveling at the large-scale university events.

Olivia Rossetti, a 1st-semester business major, was pleasantly surprised by Late Night. “When they described late night at orientation I imagined a small group of kids in a room, it definitely wasn’t what I expected,” she said.

Alex Nguyen, a 2nd-semester biology student who moved in early, also noted that the first Late Night of the year was more fun than he expected. “The mini golf was great…I’ve been coming for a year and I always bring my friends for a good time,” he said.

With the stress of moving in still in the recent past, freshmen were keen to share their experiences from their first day of independent life. The hot topics, predictably, were the presence of lofted beds in the dorms and the chaos of move in.

Most freshmen expressed their reservations at sleeping at an elevated level, but Sam Kleinman, a 1st-semester political science major, easily adjusted to the great heights.

“I was used to it, because of going to sleep away camp, so it was an easy adjustment,” he said.

As for moving in, most students agreed that Husky Haulers, an organization that assigns upperclassmen to ease the move in process, really facilitated the process. “They made everything really easy, they brought my stuff upstairs before I could even come back down from one load,” said Rosetti. Kleinman agreed, but offered the opinion that moving in early had its benefits as well. “Early move in was advantageous, you miss the rush.”

Overall freshmen expressed their satisfaction with the Husky WOW events and thought that the programs helped them to have a fun and stress free first night on campus. According to Kleinman, the Husky WOW activities were versatile and useful to everyone. He said, “I don’t know how you could have a bad experience, unless you fell off a building or something.”