What do you think of the new first-year Orientation?
Aaron White '08Brown Dining Services Unit Manager
"From a BUDS standpoint we feel pretty bad about the new Orientation because it was shortened by four days or so, and with only two days we have very little time to recruit. We're all really scared that we're going to open on Wednesday without enough workers. We're pretty short-staffed right now, so we're really scrambling to get everyone we can, and we feel bad about not giving these freshmen enough time to see Brown while they're learning about all the dining units."
Amy Heuer '11
"It does seem like a lot of (activities) are squished into three days, and I feel like I might miss out on some programs because they're sometimes at the same time. I don't mind (having upperclassmen around) because they're really friendly - you can tell if someone's older, you can ask them a question and they're always happy to help you. I think I like that (upperclassmen) are here. I think (Orientation) is about being here and meeting friends and getting yourself comfortable in the Brown community."
Dani Candelora '11
"I think the point of Orientation is to get accustomed to campus life before you're thrown into it and know your way around campus and meet people. I wish Orientation was longer - a lot of my friends who are going to other places have week-long orientations. It just seems like I'd be a lot more comfortable, throwing classes on top of all this new stuff. Right now, I don't know my unit number for the (unit dinner at the Ratty); it was supposed to be on my door, and it wasn't, and I'm going to be a little bit lost in about an hour. We don't register (for classes) until the day before, and I wish we had a little more time before they began."
Mark PorterChief of PoliceDirector, Department of Public Safety
"Our mission is still the same. We have to continue to educate and make the community aware, and we do that in many different forms. We communicate to the students on a wide variety of mechanisms - our Web site, e-mail, crime prevention sessions and tables. We have scheduled an open forum. We have a crime prevention month coming up in October. Our goal and our role is to participate in Orientation in whatever format that is and to continue to do whatever we need to help keep the community well-informed throughout the semester. Our role of Orientation - we take it as a full-time semester job."
Spencer Amdur '08
"I'm sad to see that they've shortened Orientation. Orientation was really one of the crucial moments of my freshman year. That is when I truly met people, that is when I took my net and spread it as wide as I possibly could. I brought as many people into the fold as I could possibly find. Quite honestly, I could not have done that if our Orientation had been crammed into three days in which we were only doing scheduled activities, most of which were interesting, many of which were not valuable. The fact that I had so much time to just chill and find the people that I wanted to be friends with at Brown - I got to meet a lot more people than I think the freshmen this year got to. That first week is special. The freshmen are really in their own world then, which isn't a bad thing for a week."
