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Students make their move to dorms

A record number of students living on campus spent the majority of last weekend moving into their dorms, with groups of volunteers assisting with everything from check-ins to handing out water throughout the three-day process.

“This is the first year we’ve had formal volunteers,”said Don Yackley, executive director of resident life and housing. “We call them Cougar Movers, and I think there’s been a great show of support for the check-in, with the University community coming together to make this day go smoothly for everyone involved, especially our first-year students.

“We put the call for volunteers out later than we would like, but we recruited well over a hundred folks to help with the unpacking and the moving, to people helping with carts, and there was a lot of food being given out.”

The volunteers were helpful to new students who were unfamiliar with the campus and the overall move-in process.

“We got lost a couple of times and every few minutes someone would come up to us and ask us if we needed help,” said chemistry freshman Tanya Reyes. “Everyone was really friendly and kept showing us which way to go, which was nice because sometimes we were completely on the other side of the campus.”

Teeba Rose, Marketing Director for Resident Life and Housing, set up the Cougar Movers and even brought out some sponsors for the move, including Vitamin Water, Cat’s Back and Shasta’s Cones who gave out free breakfast burritos and ice cream to everyone. Resident Life and Housing even hired professional movers to help throughout the three-day process.

Yackley, who has been executive director since late June, notes that the move-in seems to have gone a lot smoother than last fall, even with the combination of RLH going through an internal transformation over the summer and the record number of students living on campus. This was especially evident at Cougar Village, which faced large crowds, long lines and little help during check-in a year ago.

“This year we did staggered check-ins for the Moody Towers and Cougar Village,” said Yackley. “We sent out maps and directions and even had staging areas for cars to unload.”

Sophomore Cietta Johnson and moved into Cougar Village last fall, noticed the difference in check-in times and organization.

“Last year, it took me more than two hours to get into my room and get everything moved,” Johnson said.

“This year it only took me about twenty minutes.”

Sophomore Calvin Cochran also said he had a better impression of how the event flowed.

“I think this year was better,” Cochran said. “It’s just that last year there were so many people that it didn’t make a difference how organized you were because everyone got there at the same time and didn’t know what to do.”

As far as the dorms themselves, most students are pleased with what they were assigned, even though it may have not been their preferred choice.

“I wanted to get a single room, but I ended up in a suite and having a roommate,” Johnson said. “But it’s better than not getting housing like some people.”

This year’s record enrollment also brought a large number of students wanting to live on-campus causing all housing areas to be up to capacity. According to Yackley, there are still more than 100 students on waiting lists staying in temporary housing until they are able to be relocated to more permanent living situations.

“We tried to do everything we could envision to make the check-in process go as smooth and quick as possible. It’s especially hard to make it perfect, but we learned a lot from this go-around,” Yackley said.

“We’ll make some improvements for the next cycle and hopefully get even more people excited about helping next year.”

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