3-day Fall Welcome might stay

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For the second year running, a group of students kicked off their school year Monday, Aug. 31, by throwing a Welcome Week party on Cedar Street complete with blue party cups, blaring music and beer pong on the front porch. But most attendees, including Zachary Themm, a hospitality business senior who attended the party both years, said this year was different — a letdown that didn’t compare.

“(Last year) was unbelievable,” he said. “I couldn’t even move, couldn’t hear because the music was so loud, everyone was outside.” With Welcome Week shortened to three days instead of five and Friday and Saturday cut from the schedule, students approached the changes with uncertainty, while university and city officials celebrated a successful attempt to reign in partying and anticipated similar plans for next fall.

The student experience

“We got here and thought there’d be a ton of people out,” said Sarah Coakley, an advertising senior who hosted the Cedar Street gathering. “There was nobody at all … Last year, people would just walk by and stop by. (This year,) there’s no people.”

Many students, such as Coakley, expressed disappointment in the smaller sizes of parties and numbers of people on the streets. But for others, the fewer number of days to find classes and adjust to campus life was equally disappointing.

Geological sciences senior Brett Tomlinson said he was let down by the time constraints of the new schedule.

“When I was a freshman, we had a week to meet people,” he said. “I didn’t drink. You (had) a week to find your classes.”

Despite the changes, the first nights in the residence halls went better than expected for freshmen, Residence Life Director Paul Goldblatt said. But the shorter time frame occasionally presented a challenge, he said.

“It did get students very quickly focused on academics,” Goldblatt said. “The sense of, ‘I have to get ready that quickly,’ could have had a negative impact on their connecting … with the residential community, their floormates, their roommates.”

But professor Fayyaz Hussain, who teaches integrated studies in social sciences to 700 freshmen, said he believed changing the Welcome Week schedule was a good decision and helped to dispel MSU’s party school reputation.

“The primary goal of our campus is academic achievement and I don’t like that label — a party school,” he said.

Police relief

For the last several years, East Lansing police Chief Tom Wibert said he has faced Welcome Week with a worry in the back of his mind — the worry that with thousands of people all in the same place, a “major problem” could arise as quickly as it would take someone to drag out a couch and light it on fire. Wibert’s concerns were eased this year, when hundreds fewer people attended each party and crowds stayed contained, for once not spilling into yards and streets.

“This year, it never felt like that,” he said. “That worry never crossed my mind.”

Unsure of what to expect, the East Lansing Police Department sent the same number of officers out this year as is typical for Welcome Week, Wibert said. But some patrolling officers, left with nothing to do, were sent home each night, Wibert said.

Numbers collected by the East Lansing Police Department show fewer citations issued in the five days from Thursday to Monday of this year than the three days from Thursday to Saturday of last year. In 2009, 310 appearance citations were written compared to 424 in 2008. While 240 people were issued citations in 2009, 316 were issued citations in 2008. Police reported 716 calls for service in 2009, compared to 792 in 2008.

Police sent seven people to the hospital in the four days from Thursday to Sunday in 2009, half the number of people that were sent in the same four days of 2008.

“In the old Welcome Week, it’s almost like there was an unlimited number of police work to do — you could have 500 officers out there and they would still be busy,” Wibert said. “In 2009, it was controllable.”

The inconvenience of having less time before the start of the school year was worth the benefit to the safety of the entire East Lansing community, Wibert said.

“The inconvenience for a few caused benefits for all,” he said.

The future

Because of positive feedback from the campus community, officials expect the shortened welcome to become the norm.

“Quite likely, (the calendar) will look the same or much the same next year,” MSU Provost Kim Wilcox said.

The entire academic calendar will be reviewed this year and any changes will be reflected in next year’s Welcome Week plans, he said.

“From those deliberations, we’ll then be able to pull together a semi-permanent kind of plan for a schedule,” Wilcox said.

Although the shortened welcoming meant some traditional Welcome Week events were combined or overlapped on the schedule, attendance at many events was stronger than in the past.

University officials said that proved the benefits of the shorter welcome outweigh the drawbacks. Events such as the Spartan Spectacular brought students together as they experienced their first taste of Spartan life.

“The fireworks display was outstanding,” said Doug Estry, associate provost for undergraduate education. “When it was all over with, when the fireworks finally went out … the students were spontaneously cheering, ‘Go green, go white,’ and singing the fight song as they left the field.”

Fall Welcome should encompass more than a freshman’s first few days on campus, MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon said.

“Everybody’s focusing on three days,” Simon said. “What we’re trying to do is focus on a broader time period for the acclimation of students to campus.”

At the peak of the night, the house on Cedar Street was packed shoulder to shoulder and escaping off the porch where the beer pong games continued had become nearly impossible. But attendees continued to mourn the Welcome Week they remember.

“This school has changed,” Themm said. “College has changed.”

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