Many colleges do an adequate job at making new students comfortable when they first begin attending the school by holding events made especially for freshmen.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, each year, 68.3 percent of high school seniors graduate knowing what college they are going to attend. How do those college freshmen adjust to their new environment? What do the colleges do or what events do they have to make them more comfortable with the change? Colleges have events throughout the school year so that the students are not stressed with too much schoolwork or just bored because they have nothing to do. With everything happening on-campus, freshman year does not need to be a struggle.
Dominique Williams, a freshman at Oswego State, said that the first event she went to was the Torchlight Ceremony that the campus holds every year for freshman and graduating seniors.
“The Jazz band played and we took fire from some special flame with our candles and we sang the alma mater,” Williams said.
For many of the freshmen here, that is their first college event where they get to meet and mingle with other college freshmen.
“They had a little cookout. A buffet-style picnic in Hewitt and we ate outside. After that there was a big dance party and we made Frisbees and had lots of fun,” freshman Kaitlyn Wachter said. “I get good vibes here and they help us get to know everybody.”
Williams said she did not know about these events or any of the other things the campus does for them.
“No, I didn’t know anything,” Wiliams said. “I think it gave a good element of surprise.”
When these students came to college they said that they did not consider themselves very tech savvy, but they knew the basics.
“Wi-Fi doesn’t even work on my computer sometimes,” freshman Tatiana Bruzda said.
But she said she has become more tech-savvy since she began attending the school.
“Yeah, actually, a little because I had to take CSC 103,” Bruzda said.
CSC 103, a computer science class, is a general education technology class that education students are required to take at Oswego State. This prepares future educators to use programs necessary to teach their students. By taking this class, students also get to work with all of the new programs that the school brings into their system and has to offer for the other students.
Chad Brochs, a CTS employee, said that Oswego State is upgrading systems to better and faster software almost every semester. Brochs thinks that the school will be able to keep up with the freshmen that come in every year more and more tech savvy.
“Yeah, I’m sure 100 percent,” Brochs said. “The computers support Windows 7 now and soon the computers will be able to support Windows 8 and Mountain Lion iOS6. We are almost done getting Wi-Fi in all of the buildings on campus.”
Given that the students that do come here spend a lot of their time on the computer, the campus does have other things that they do throughout the semester to make sure students are not cooped up in their dorms on their laptops.
“I go to open mic night every Thursday night and Lakerfest was awesome,” Wachter said.
Lakerfest is a small, annual, carnival held by Oswego State’s Resident’s Life and Housing at Onondaga Field. Every fall, there are rides, such as a zip line, and other fun activities for all of the students to do. Campus Recreation also helps with the event.
“I’m always doing something on campus,” said Williams. “I participated in the suicide walk, some resident assistant activities in the building, went to the Horror Film Festival, saw a movie in the Campus Center Auditorium and watched the Sherlock Holmes play in Waterman Theater.”
