Talking Stick - May/June 2008 - 42

MANAGING MOVE-IN MADNESS PHOTOS: DANTÉ ESCUSA ONLINE ASSISTANCE I Top: Ohio State volunteers prepare to unload a vehicle full of student belongings. Bottom: Traffic is always a top concern on movein day, and it’s no different at The Ohio State University, which is evident from this long line of vehicles inching through campus. t’s not only the on-site services that make the move-in process function effectively. Today’s students, a technologically savvy generation, rely heavily on the Internet to provide them with information about almost everything, including move-in days. Cook describes KSU’s relevant Web site, for example, as a useful tool for incoming students, because it has “a signiﬁcant amount of information regarding room layouts, furniture types, what to bring, and our policies on what is not allowed.” For the beneﬁt of students who may not be so dependent upon online resources, the university also provides a hard copy, Cook explains: “Students also receive this in a larger packet that is sent from our department with information about student insurance, linen purchases, and computer registration regulations.” Berthold also acknowledges the value of online information and says that his staff “will communicate more with our students and their parents through our Web site and e-mail newsletters that we send out prior to their arrival. There is so much that we want to share with our incoming families, and sending updates electronically ensures that they will get the information no matter where they are during the summer.” Providing an electronic source for information about move-in day makes sense, since Millennials tend to use the Internet as their main form of communication; they also tend to see this preference as an environmental statement, recognizing that nonelectronic forms of communication waste paper. In response to these concerns, many universities have been moving their room assignment process online: Wright explains that at Appalachian State all parts of the student room assignment process will be online this year, and Cook says Kansas State has moved the “returning staff.” Other improvements have been organizational ones such as changing the structure of check-in and reorganizing the ﬂow of trafﬁc to help the move-in process run more smoothly. The university has implemented staggered check-in times organized by last name and, rather than packaging room keys according to student names, keys are now labeled according to room number to make any last minute transfers easier. 42 Talking Stick Transportation and parking are always problematic on move-in day, and institutions must ﬁnd ways to avoid congestion and keep parents and students moving from their cars into the residence halls. Sometimes these problems can be alleviated simply by staggering move-in days for different populations. Garrett explains that, at Baylor, allowing students from living-learning programs and residential college to move in a day before the general population of new students helped to control trafﬁc and congestion on campus. The University of Alberta responded to the parking and congestion problems by providing detailed maps indicating parking areas for parents and residents on move-in day. As Krawchuk says, “With the assistance of parking services, [we were able to] enforce the ‘drop and go’ policy where we encourage residents to drop off their luggage in front of their respective building, and then move their car to a permanent parking spot instead of blocking the loading areas.”
Talking Stick - May/June 2008

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