This week marked the beginning of my last year at the University of Puget Sound. It was a bit of a whirlwind, as the start of the semester always is. But this post isn’t going to be about that, it’s going to be a retrospective post about new student orientation. My intention was to write this post over a week ago, as orientation was happening, but in stead I was relishing the fact that I had nothing to do before the semester began.
On freshman move-in day Greek life always plays a special role in helping
move new students into their residence halls. We call ourselves SWAT, or the Student Welcoming Assistance Team. It’s a courtesy that is offered to the families by the Greek community. Though this is hard work for all of the SWAT volunteers, and they work up a sweat, especially this year in the 90 plus degree weather, it is a great opportunity for our community to get our name out to the new students and their parents. The free muffins and pizza, help to keep our volunteers around as well.
In addition to move-in day festivities Greek life also helped out with other orientation activities throughout the week. On Monday and Friday the Panhellenic and Interfraternity Councils sponsored hypnotists for the evenings’ entertainment. Following the shows the council members lead tours of the fraternity and sorority houses for students who were interested in learning a little bit more about our Greek community. For me the house tours were a particularly eye opening experience because it was the first real time that I was acting in my Rho Gamma role. It was both difficult and extremely exciting to be able to answer these girls questions about all of the houses and the community as a whole. The whole week made me very excited for my recruitment duties in January.