Winter Semester boom: Largest orientation in recent memory

    54

    By David Randall

    Newell Dayley, BYU associate vice president of undergraduate studies, was told to plan his speech “Six Habits of the Mind” to give to 30-40 new and transfer student. Officials for the new student orientation called him later and said that number might be closer to 60.

    However, when Dayley got to the Wilkinson Center Ballroom Saturday afternoon, he found not 60, but 400 students and parents, BYU”s largest Winter Semester orientation in recent memory.

    Raylene Hadley, an academic advisement faculty member who has been involved with the orientation for about 10 years, said she thinks the decision to move the orientation to a Saturday before school starts may be what drew the large turnout.

    Room arrangements for the event had to be shifted to accommodate the group. The rooms they originally slated for all the transfer and new freshmen were opened and used just for the transfer students. Freshmen met down the hall.

    Steve Turley, associate dean in undergraduate education and chair of the new student orientation executive committee, said they planned for fewer based on the historical attendance, but feels glad that so many were able to come. He attributed some of the increased attendance to more parents and family members coming with students.

    “Were exited … we think there”s a lot of value in this,” he said. “We just kept flexible, put up more chairs, put more noodles in the pot.”

    The school admitted around 440 new students for the Winter Semester, according to Hadley, pretty close to the number they admitted last year. BYU allows for winter enrollment based on the number that school officials guess will be graduating or leaving on missions

    The entering student population dynamic for the winter semester is different than in the fall; more returned LDS missionaries, transfer students and international students, according to Turley. Based on hands raised during the Dayley”s presentation, only a handful come straight from high school.

    Other reasons for students entering winter semester are being undecided or missing the fall semester application deadline.

    “I was undecided,” said Eduardo Amorim, a new freshman from Sao Paulo, Brazil. “I was planning on doing a university in Brazil. When I decided to come here it was too later for the fall application.”

    Likewise, Randy Meru, 18, a freshman from Newbury Park, Calif., said indecision kept him from entering BYU earlier. He was waiting to see on a chance to play on the volleyball team at Pepperdine, but ended up attending a local community college.

    He said he came to BYU partly to get out of homes experience, “so it won”t be such a shock to me when I get out on a mission.”

    The orientation, which had sessions running from 12:30 to 7:30 p.m., included large group opening sessions at which Dayley and Turley spoke, breakout session for students and parents, an introduction to Freshmen Academy, an information fair and a presentation on the Honor Code.

    The “Tradition of Honor” presentation put on by the Student Honor Association, was an attempt to help students understand and feel more comfortable about the rules they agree to live by at BYU.

    “Everything that wasn”t cool in high school is automatically cool at BYU,” Arnold Ngatuvai, told students during his stand-up comedy portion of the presentation.

    Print Friendly, PDF & Email