The Daily Campus

Hopefully this commentary is not reflective of the year to come. Either an extremely S L O W news month in Storrs if this is topic A or there are some dubious changes at the DC for 2009 and 10.

Pathetic to think that this writer considers prospective freshman unable to retain information learned in early July until September. Imagine how they will perform in courses - hopefully not in the "too bad" CLAS with so many majors!

"Orientation," is simply what it is; a chance for the University to introduce UC and welcome new students; with goofy skits; [a "play" involves multiple acts]and a warm up to allow new students to meet other students, alleviate fears and anxieties or elevate expectations and goals.

Most students have summer jobs [rather than writing innocuous editorials] and tend to work them to the brink to save money, making your August programming somewhat idealistic and impractical.

I frequently have strong negative reactions to commentary articles in the DC but this one in particular just seems inappropriate. You don't really seem to know what you're talking about. You raise several critiques about orientation without crediting any of the hundreds of people who make it possible and continue to make first year students and their experience a priority. I'm sorry that you didn't happen to have a good orientation experience, and I won't pretend that orientation is perfect doesn't raise several budgetary and logistical challenges each year. However, my orientation experience was the first of several great experiences in my UConn career, and I learned a lot of valuable information from it. Don't generalize your own opinion when, in fact, it only represents one solitary opinion that others probably don't share in the volumes that you expect.

Wow. Grammar and content are lacking here. Obviously the graduating class of DC reporters took the talent with them. Just because it is the summer doesn't mean that the newspaper should allow sub-par articles on the website.

There was not one good argument in the entire article. If you do not think incoming students can retain information for two months, than how do you expect them to retain any information taught in college that will not be implemented until after graduation? The purpose of Orientation is to familiarize the freshmen to the campus they will be spending their next four (or five) years at. So many people are nervous about meeting people, or finding classes, but after Orientation those nerves are eased. The people who were in my Orientation group are some of my best friends today. As for the vignettes, they are just to bring up issues that might arise on campus. Like all people reading this knows, college is very different from high school and the people working for the Orientation Services, want to show those scenarios and give options for solutions.

As said before, Orientation is not perfect. If that was the point of your article, than it was pointless because nothing in this world is. The Orientaion program is ran by completely students, excluding Maria Sedotti, and it shows great success from all of us who have gone through it. Every single minute of Orientation is planned and has a reason for being in there. They deserve a round of applause rather than people trying to criticize the minor details that some don't enjoy so those details are consider flaws.

I find it disappointing that a student-one who fails to even take ownership of his or her article-would undermine the importance of a program such as orientation-a program intended for the purpose of benefitting incoming students to the university-and to what avail?

Your criticism of the program is based off of your personal orientation which unfortunately did not live up to your standards, but what of the many students that come through UConn's orientation program feeling more comfortable about returning in the fall, excited for the opportunities awaiting them, and satisfied knowing the classes they will take when they return.

Orientation helps many students-who may have put a deposit down on multiple schools-make a decision as to whether UConn is or is not right for them. Were orientation held later in the summer, these students would make blind decisions. Also, meeting with advisers early in the summer allows students to make the most of their summer-maybe they learn after coming through orientation that it would be helpful to use the summer to get ahead in their major so they can take a summer class or find an internship. Most students are thrilled to have an excused absence from high school for two days to get a peek into what awaits them in the fall. It gives them something to work towards. As for your allusion to the lack of advisers for students, most students who come through orientation get a one on one meeting with their adviser and get a great deal of personal attention. CLAS students actually have an adviser for every one or two students who actually sits with them through course registration, so the information your commentary presents is inaccurate. Check your facts.

You also write of how students are kept under close supervision and not allowed to go off and explore as if they are kept on lock and chain. A number of great opportunities are available to the students and they are given free time around the Buckley area to develop relationships with fellow students. Is it really so terrible that they are made to stick with their group so that they will socialize with other students and meet their future classmates? Don't they have the next four years of their lives to explore with out supervision?

A structured program is not solely for the purpose of keeping tabs on the students, but for the benefit of the students to interact with each other, make acquaintances and network. Imagine how parents would feel if this supervision were not in place, and their not-yet-college students found themselves wandering away from the program and into trouble? That would not bode well, and in that case, structure is something appreciated by the parents, as well as many students who would not know what to do with themselves if given total freedom before they are comfortable with the campus.

Finally, I must question-with what expertise are you judging the program? I understand a commentary need not be a researched article, but when a newspaper elects to publish an article, it is for the sake of the integrity of the paper that the articles it selects be focused, well organized, and researched. If this commentary were coming from someone who is well versed in UConn's orientation program, an insider, that would be one thing, but the fact that the article is based on the experience of one person from years past, and not even the current orientation program is frustrating.

For the parents and students attending orientation in the coming weeks who pick this up, you have presented them with a biased, negative, and baseless critique of the orientation program. What a disservice to the university as well as an orientation program that leaves so many students excited and thrilled for their pending UConn experience.

Daily Campus, before publishing a worthless commentary, why not write a researched article on the orientation program, one where the author first speaks with at least a handful of the hundreds of professionals who work with the program and the thousands of parents and students who attend the program-and for the most part-leave thrilled.

While many disagree over the specific arguments presented by this article, I feel few have been able to counter the heart of it. That is, orientation is overall a negative experience. It is a superficial introduction to college life. Funny, light-hearted skits and fear-mongering over sexual assault don't teach students the first thing they need to know about the new social and academic experiences they will face. The school would do a greater service to the students by simply sending them a packet of information, instead of wasting their weekend with elementary, pointless activities.

this is just food for thought, and feel free to ignore it if you don't see the importance, but upon reading the article and comments I have a thought.

1. Why doesn't the DC ever write anything positive. I mean I know they're always looking for the story/the headline...they want to grab people's interest...but couldn't for once they try to do so with a headline that is positive, for example about the positives of orientation, or in general about something good going on on-campus. This may seem like a surprise to anyone on the DC reading this, but students do a lot on this campus, professors do a lot on this campus and the different departments do a lot on this campus. And contrary to what one might think if they only ever read the DC, a lot of amazing, fun, and interesting things happen on this campus that are not negative and for a news "spin." You could have written so many good things about the experience at orientation, and instead chose to write an article saying it doesn't use it's resources well; however, you fail to argue that point and instead insert arguments that aid to it being at a poor time (in your opinion) and not fun (in your opinion) and not providing good information(again in your opinion). So in the future maybe you should consider what resources it DOES use and how it BENEFITS the students--and not just orientation, but many other things/events on campus.

Wow, why so much controversy, especially without any strong argument? Apparently there are no other (pertinent) issues to write about...Has anyone else noticed that many of these articles look more like a 7th grade essay than the work of a college student?

I was a former Orientation leader so i think I probably have more authority to talk on the subject then the DC or most of these commenters on here.

1) Do we tell the students a lot of information that they will probably forget? Yes. We are machines knowing the most random and useless info about buildings, history, facts, and people. We tell these facts to students not to remember but just so that they know, so that they hear it once, and so that they can take it in at the current moment. There is nothing wrong with listening to someone say random facts about this or that.

2) Yes, students are not allowed to leave the group at any time during Orientation. The primary reason for doing this all comes down to liability. People going through orientation are not officially students, so the office of orientation is responsible for their actions once they sign in on the first morning. Orientation is also only 2 days, and maybe you have 2 hours of free time, so what can a high schooler possibly do on their own for those 2 hours? The claim that students should be allowed to go out on their own and do what they want is baseless with no positive results. They can do what they want at the end of the 2nd day.

3) The piece says that for most students orientation is a negative experience. Thats not true. I'll be honest with you, I had probably 200-300 kids throughout my sessions...and yes maybe 10-20 of them are just awful, they dont want to be there for whatever reason, they make fun of people who are trying to have a good time, they try to act like the big boy on campus, and they are the ones that either don't actually go to uconn in september or drop out afterwards. The majority of students enjoy the experience.

4) In my opinion, the primary goal of orientation is for a future student to just meet their future uconn peers. Everything else is either office work, or just things that need to be done. If you are friendly, and open to meeting new people, orientation is fine. If you have a hard time talking to people or trying new things, i can see why orientation might suck.

5) moving orientation to august? Only problem with that is a lot of the time the campus is starting to get active again with the semester in August. The biggest benefit of having it in June and the beginning of July is there is no one on campus and that is a wonderful thing. Also the weather. It would be unbearable doing orientation in July or August. Way too hot. And finally planning - orientation is also for parents, and they like having time to plan what their student will need to buy and such throughout the summer and not be rushed a few weeks before classes.


The whole orientation process is thought out to such a degree its pretty crazy. Having seen it from both ends, I can say students under-appreciate the effort that goes into it. Orientation for 3500 students is very different than maybe a week-long orientation held for 500 students at some small liberal college in tim buck to where they can come and go as they please.

I remember when I was a freshman for at one of the best criminal justice colleges in the nation I had the worst time keeping my head together during the orientation. I think they are great, but not everyone can stand them. My 2 cents.

I remember when i was a freshman only for party? play?computer game?amorism?
Not much time in learning

I don't like freshmen orientation. It was the worst time for me. I think freshmen do not need such an orientation like that.