On Monday, the vacant summer streets of Athens were filled with life again as Ohio University’s class of 2007 began their undergraduate experience with Precollege Orientation.
Precollege will run for four weeks and is divided into 15 one-and-a-half day sessions for freshmen, said Richard Linn, director of orientation programs. There are two additional one-day sessions for transfer students. About 250 students attend each session, which means 600 more people are in Athens daily.
“It’s a customer-service program,” Linn said. “You really need to make certain that they’re getting what they need.”
During Precollege, new OU students attend seminars to help students adjust to college life and learn their way around the campus. In addition, they receive academic advising and take class placement tests to determine what difficulty level they should enroll in for certain subjects, like math, chemistry and foreign languages.
Linn said the basic Precollege agenda remains the same from year to year, although there always are changes that must be made to the format to ensure everything runs smoothly.
“There are always some changes — we hope improvements,” he said. “It’s one of those situations that you have to keep looking to see if you can make it work a little better.”
Veteran OU parents Doug and MaryLou Satterfield are attending their second Precollege with their son, incoming-freshman Derek. They also were here two years ago with their son Brett, an OU junior, and said the sessions this time were basically the same, but they learned more this time.
“I absorbed so much more this time, I was so overwhelmed last time,” MaryLou said. “They do what they have to do in two days, it’s good.”
Linn said officials begin orientation planning months in advance, and some plans for next year’s Precollege are already in place.
“There are certain things that have to be done nine months ahead of time, six months ahead of time — and so on,” Linn said.
The departments of housing, dining services, facilities management, computer services, and the deans of the colleges all have to work together to plan Precollege.
Dining services provides incoming freshmen three meals during each day and a half session, said Rich Neumann, assistant director of dining services. Precollege participants receive lunch and dinner on their first day, and breakfast the next morning.
“It’s really not any different than the school year,” Neumann said. “(The number of people eating is) usually anywhere from 450 to 600, and they start on lunch and go through breakfast — then a new group comes in. It cycles through for three weeks straight.”
Neumann said all meals for Precollege are served in Nelson Dining Hall, and the only thing noticeably different between the summer and school year is that meals are served buffet-style with help from the Nelson banquet staff.
“That’s to expedite the meal service,” Neumann said. “It took too long years ago to let them through the line. Now it’s all self-service buffet style, and we bring them their beverage and clear their places for them.”
The housing department is responsible for checking in students at Shively Hall, where they pay Precollege fees, register for meals, receive over-night housing assignments and pick up informational pamphlets about their session, said Beverley Wyatt, director of conference services. Precollege fees, which are fees required to participate in the sessions, are $52. In addition meals cost $25 and housing assignments also are $25.
All freshmen and parents who choose to stay on campus stay on East Green. Men are in Bush Hall, women stay in Tiffin and their parents are assigned to Perkins Hall, Wyatt said.
The housing department also works with the Athens Chamber of Commerce to put together three mock residence hall rooms in Tiffin Hall for parents and students to view “what the ideal dorm room would look like,” Wyatt said. Items for the rooms were donated by area stores like Wal-Mart and JCPenney.
Incoming freshman Molly Naylor, an international communications and Spanish major, said she enjoyed looking at the mock rooms.
“I can’t wait to decorate my own room,” Naylor said. “It’s going to be crazy because I’ve never shared my room before.”
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Katie Gill
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Kelly Garrett and her mother, Debbie, top, talk with Samantha Saturni and her mother, Kathy, while visiting the mock dorm triple yesterday set up in Tiffin Hall on East Green. Both girls are incoming freshman from Brecksville and were visiting for Precoll
