Fall Welcome engages students

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Policemen on horseback, parties that spilled into the streets and the rush to find her way around campus are just a few of the images Viktoria Taube recalls from her freshman year Welcome Week two years ago.

For biochemical engineering freshman Matt Peyser, things were a bit different.

Last fall, university officials decided to move the previously weeklong Welcome Week to a three-day Fall Welcome out of concern for student safety.

Peyser called the newly donned “Fall Welcome” a whirlwind of meetings and information. It was helpful, but still too short, he said.

“It didn’t seem long enough to go out and get used to the campus,” Peyser said. “With a few extra days, I could have walked around campus more, got to know the bus routes, got to know more people and been able to navigate campus better.”

Taube, now an interior design junior, said Welcome Week is an important time of transition for freshmen.

“There’s a lot to learn,” she said.

Transitioning to the three-day Fall Welcome

Taube isn’t the only one who remembers a wilder Welcome Week. East Lansing Police Chief Tom Wibert said although the East Lansing Police Department, or ELPD, still has busy nights during Fall Welcome, the situation improvesevery year.

“Before the change, the Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights of Welcome Week were without question the busiest nights of the year for the East Lansing Police Department,” Wibert said. “Our issues were parties that grew so large that they would block off a street and we had several assaults, incidents of incapacitation and some really big safety problems.”

The ELPD has seen a large reduction in the out-of-town crowd, since transitioning to the three-day Fall Welcome, Wibert said. Nonstudents typically are known to cause more problems on and around campus during the welcome period.

“Last year, 68 percent of the people that landed in jail or were arrested had no MSU affiliation,” he said. “The biggest positive impact for the city has been the change in the academic calendar.”

According to data from the ELPD, Welcome Week problems have declined dramatically in the past few years, with the number of minor in possession charges down from 207 in 2005 to 111 last year and the number of disorderly conduct cases down from 108 in 2005 to 58 last year.

Beyond the welcome

One of the biggest changes the university has tried to make is the message it sends out to new freshmen, said Tammye Coles, associate director of the Department of Student Life. Coles did not know when the Welcome Week tradition began at MSU, but said its association with drinking and partying is not what it was intended for and something administrators are trying to end. The issue came before ASMSU in 2008.

Its purpose is to reach out to incoming students and welcome them into the community, she said.

“There was a message out there before that you have one week of activities and once you do that you’re done,” Coles said. “The new thought process is that Fall Welcome is a welcome and it’s merely a kickoff to Fall Welcome activities that will happen over a year’s time. We’re trying to engage students over the course of the entire year because giving students everything they need the first week is virtually impossible.”

Part of that welcome is instilling values in freshmen students and teaching them what it means to be a Spartan, said Doug Estry, associate provost for undergraduate education.

“We’re trying to use Fall Welcome and the Academic Orientation Program and this entire first year to create a more coherent introduction to undergraduate education all in the hopes that it will help students be more successful at MSU,” Estry said. “Part of that is sending a message about responsible behavior.”
Coles said working with the East Lansing community has been another important effort in the past few years and the university has hired a community liaison to work with East Lansing officials directly.

“We work with the police department to make sure they have extra support during that time,” she said. “A lot of literature goes out before Fall Welcome. A lot of problems have been eliminated simply by working together.”

What it means to be a Spartan

Along with a refocusing of a welcome message and the change in the academic calendar has come a strong emphasis on instilling values in new Spartans, with a strong emphasis on giving back to the community.

Karen McKnight Casey, director of the Center for Service-Learning and Civic Engagement, said MSU has always had a commitment to service as part of a land grant university and has the oldest service learning office in the country.

“We hope that by 2011 one-half of student life will be involved in service learning,” Casey said. “We’re at about 42 percent right now.”

The Fill the Bus project was initiated in 2009 as a part of this focus with the university encouraging students to help fill a school bus with non-perishable foods, health and hygiene items and school supplies for local Lansing community members in need, she said. This year’s One Book, One Community book selection “Zeitoun” also underscored the idea of service.

Also new this year is the university’s first ever on campus build of a Habitat for Humanity house.

Coles said one of the biggest things freshmen should take from Fall Welcome is an introduction to the Spartan family.

“The spirit of the Fall Welcome ingrains in you at the very beginning of your Spartan experience that you are a unique person when you become a part of the Spartan family,” she said. “It is an honor and a privilege to be a Spartan. It is expected that you broaden your horizons and give back to the community. That’s what it means to be a Spartan for life.”

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