OCL presents Freshman 15 program, student organization fair changes
They say that there will be one point in time in your life when you will remember whom you stayed up with to study for THAT Organic Chemistry exam rather than how much you scored on it. To avoid the Monday to Friday routine of classroom rigor and to enhance the IIT social experience, the Office of Campus Life plays a pivotal role in creating a collaborative campus community via facilitation of programming events and mentoring student organizations. Their unique First Year Experience program is about to add a very special component starting fall 2012: the Freshman 15 program. Aimed at increasing social participation among incoming students in the definitive ‘must-do activities’ at IIT, the program will collaborate actively with student organizations, departments, offices, and even specialized target audiences like international students to help freshman make the most of their first year.
The Office of Campus Life will release a list of fifteen carefully chosen activities in both the fall and spring semesters to help freshman navigate their way through the bombardment of Facebook invites and e-mail blasts from mailing lists. This defining list of social, sporting, service, and academic events is what makes IIT a truly unique institution in such that these special activities are easily accessible by everyone. When choosing from student submitted nominations, the Office of Campus Life put special emphasis on feedback provided by current students who have participated in these activities before, and on other factors such as success rate, student participation, and cost, which meant that events like UB-sponsored skydiving couldn’t make the cut, even though a $90 skydiving deal is almost unbeatable anywhere in the country. If the chance to create an incredibly rare memory extravaganza wasn’t enough, OCL has created an added incentive for people to attend these events: students who participate in any ten of the fifteen events get entered in a raffle for a special prize, which is yet to be announced.
Besides this, another exciting announcement is the scheduling of the first ever Student Organization Festival, replacing the traditional Student Org Fair, to be held during Welcome Week for the first time. Aimed at incoming and transfer students but open to all, it has been scheduled for the morning of Friday, August 11th. Union Board is scheduled to bring in a band for the festival, and student organizations are each getting a table to hand out giveaways, talk about their organizations in an effort to solicit interest in joining their e-mail lists, and announce their first meetings. Currently registered student organizations have until the 10th of August to register their spots at this unique event.
