Friday, March 29, 2024

New Welcome Week accomplishes MSU's goals

One year ago, surviving Welcome Week might have meant you didn’t vomit in the street or have a run-in with the East Lansing Police Department.

This year, however, it might just mean you made it to class prepared.

As many students probably know by now, the university shortened its traditional Welcome Week to just three days.

The university seems to believe that “idle hands are the devil’s workshop.” In the past, with nothing to do for a whole week, students would wind up in trouble with the law, or worse, the emergency room.

In the past several years, the Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights of Welcome Week routinely were the busiest nights for the police department.

So MSU’s goal was simple and straightforward: shorten Welcome Week in an effort to curb student partying. And if that was the goal, it seems to have worked.

Last year’s Welcome Week saw 577 citations and 106 arrests, while this year police issued 478 citations and made 82 arrests. This year, there were only 94 minor in possession citations compared to last year’s 134.

This looks to be the slightly reduced crime that police and MSU officials were expecting.

And although these are not phenomenal drops, the university clearly achieved its goal, and it deserve some credit.

Many students who were not in favor of the shortened Welcome Week — the majority, it seems — might ask what the cost was for achieving this goal. We see it as pretty minimal, while the benefits of fewer arrests and more student safety were plentiful.

The odd schedule stir-up of holding Monday classes Wednesday for the first week might lead some students to be concerned that they are missing out on a substantial amount of class. Some students might be thrilled at this, although the more studious among us might feel rushed in their studies, cheated out of tuition money, or both.

But if anyone suffered from the change in the new Welcome Week schedule, it was the new freshmen who had to deal with moving into the dorms, finding their classes and getting their books, all while attempting to meet new people and enter the MSU milieu.

Admittedly, making the transition to MSU life is hard to accomplish in just three days. While many freshmen might still be getting the hang of MSU, the disorientation will be only temporary, if it hasn’t dissipated entirely by now.

Students also should consider that MSU’s new schedule does not differ greatly from other schools.

Perhaps we’ve been spoiled in the past with a whole week to move in and relax. It’s entirely reasonable to give students three days to move in, purchase books and find one’s classes. The real issue with students seems to be that they have now been asked to fit a week’s worth of partying into just three days.

Would students really be so up in arms about the changes if this was simply the way it always was?

Instead of whining and creating more Facebook protest groups, students should realize MSU officials had the best interest of the students in mind this time. They created a plan and followed through with it at a minimal inconvenience to students. And for that, MSU ought to be congratulated.

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