2011 OFYP Annual Report - Orientation and First-Year Programs ...

•SCVNGR, a text message based scavenger hunt system, wasimplemented for the Community Exploration Trips, giving WelcomeWeek Leaders more structured content during the experience.•To better utilize student’s time, the Welcome Week Closing Meetingwas integrated into the Community Exploration Trip experience.Overall, Welcome Week created a welcoming environment for the Classof 2015. Of the 5,454 eligible for Welcome Week, 5,368 students makeup the Class of 2015 (4,626 residential, 742 commuter). The Class of2015 was 98.4% of those eligible. Eligible is determined by variousindicatiors - i.e. housing confirmation or document check reservation.Overall Key Findings:•99% of all first-year students attended at least one WelcomeWeek event.•The most memorable aspects of Convocation for students were:marching band, address from the President, receiving the Class of 2015tassel from the President. The aspect of being with friends/meetingnew people jumped from 33% in 2010 to 40% in 2011.•College Day participation continues to be high at 95% across allcolleges. Colleges with a required course that begins during WelcomeWeek have higher attendance, typically around 98%.•Students continue to be impressed with their overall Welcome Weekexperience (see chart on page 31).•The small group experience continues to be a positive experience fornew students (see chart on page 31). There were significant jumps instudents building cohesive bonds, supporting differing perspectives,and continued connections post Welcome Week. This may be a result ofthe Welcome Week Leader selection process and additionalRespect U programming.•Students who disagreed that Welcome Week prepared them fortheir transition, did not give them a sense of class identity, and didnot have a favorable impression of Welcome Week had lower overallparticipation rates, did not have parents attend Parent Orientationand were more likely to be commuter students compared to those whoonly disagreed with one of those statements.27