Colleges and universities are adapting to the lingering effects of COVID-19 closures that kept students away from school during a critical period of social development. Teaching students to adjust to college life has been harder than it was before, with many arriving on campus anxious about making social connections.
As a result, many colleges are rethinking their freshman orientation programs, adding new options and doing more to help students build relationships.
For example, the University of Colorado Boulder is offering three orientation options for new students this summer. In one, freshmen meet their classmates in breakout calls on Zoom. In another, students and their families visit campus for a day to learn about college traditions and how to get involved on campus. And students looking for a more immersive experience can attend “Camp CHIP,” where they spend two nights on campus, interacting with other students while getting to know the campus and what college life is like.
Before the pandemic, colleges’ summer orientations were primarily online, with in-person “welcome weeks” before classes began, but recently there’s been increased interest (and expectation) from students and their families about the need to help students feel like they belong on campus, says Joe Thomas, president of the Higher Education Orientation, Transition, and Retention Association (NODA).
“In 2019, you would have heard parents and students say, ‘This is a pain,’ ‘It’s a hassle to get here,’ ‘Why do we need an in-person orientation?'” he said. “Now it’s like, ‘Yeah, we get it, we’d love to be involved and see them get to know each other.’ Now it’s a lot more supportive.”
There’s another reason colleges want to get orientation right: It’s the first step in fostering a sense of belonging and hopefully persuading students to stay. This is especially important for first-generation students and those transferring from other institutions.
“This is really the first step in student retention,” says Katie Murray, director of new student and family programs at Towson University. “If a student has a bad experience that starts at orientation and carries over into the first semester, you’re less likely to retain that student.”
Flexibility is key
NODA’s Thomas said many colleges are still “throwing darts at the dartboard” to figure out what works best for orientation, which means they have to be adaptable and offer different ways to prepare students for college.
Most colleges are now incorporating online elements into the orientation process left over from the pandemic, Thomas said. The online portions are often more “transactional,” he noted. Students learn how to register for classes, connect with academic advisors and get required training. The number of topics covered in those trainings is growing as colleges are forced to make changes such as tightening regulations on artificial intelligence, enacting stricter free speech rules and enforcing anti-bullying policies.
As a result, orientation is expected to cover a lot more information than it did a few years ago, says Jenny Osborne, associate director of first-year experience at Ohio State University. In Ohio, for example, the state legislature passed an anti-bullying law. legislation The law, which goes into effect in 2021, requires universities to create educational programs on bullying that students can complete during their orientation period.
Once students have completed the online portion, the university will engage them in in-person or virtual sessions over the summer or just before classes start to encourage students to connect with each other.
At Towson University, for example, students must complete a series of online modules that typically take about 35 minutes total before coming to orientation, Murray said. Students then attend a one-day session in-person or virtually over the summer, and then take a four-day program before their first day of classes.
Murray added that the goal is to get the word out over time while also encouraging students to connect with each other.
“We know that a sense of belonging can wax and wane throughout a student’s life,” Murray said, “but if you start with the right attitude, that information can come in a variety of ways.”
Thomas, who also serves as CU Boulder’s vice president for student affairs, said having a range of orientation options also helps the university gauge student needs. Many CU Boulder students are from out of state, and visiting CU Boulder is difficult during the summer, peak tourist season, he said. Students who can’t come to Colorado but want to connect with their future classmates can attend virtual sessions, where they’ll be split into small groups led by orientation leaders.
“We try really hard to make sure that students can participate in our orientation program, whether they can afford it or not,” Thomas said. “We can then use that information to say, ‘Okay, [for] “As we move into the summer ahead, we need to strike a balance between meeting the needs of first-generation students, meeting the different needs that marginalized populations may have, and the entire student population of over 7,000 at UC Boulder.”
Changing Social Skills
Universities are also beginning to adapt their orientation programs to accommodate changing student social skills in the wake of the pandemic.
Osborne said many students are now finding it hard to leave their families. Before the pandemic, about 70% to 80% of students stayed in dorms during college summer orientation. Now, more than half of students are choosing to stay with their parents in hotels. Students also often rely on siblings or parents for information about colleges rather than relying on orientation, Osborne added.
When deciding on orientation dates, students previously chose the earliest possible date, but now they want to coordinate with future roommates and classmates they met online, Osborne said.
“The way students behaved during orientation showed a strong desire to stay safe,” she said.
To help students feel more comfortable meeting other students, Osborne said, Ohio State has begun offering more “low-risk” activities in small groups. For example, instead of hosting a big scavenger hunt, students can participate in jewelry making, coloring, board games and volleyball or basketball games, Osborne said. That way, students can interact with one or two people without feeling overwhelmed by a large group.
Other universities are creating small-group atmospheres that bring students together based on similar interests or identities. “You already have something in common, so when you meet each other, you have an advantage,” says Gregory Wolcott, vice president for student affairs at San Jose State University.
At San Jose State’s two-night orientation, students are split into groups of about 20 people based on what they plan to study, Wolcott said, and orientation leaders host interactive activities for each group.
At the University of Colorado Boulder, students are grouped together based on commonalities. During the university’s fall freshman welcome program, orientation leaders host about 40 “buff meetups” for students with shared interests, like gaming or music. The “meetups” can also include touring local restaurants or going on hikes together, helping students bond in a smaller environment, according to Lizzy Brister, CUBC’s director of freshman and family programs. Some events are identity-based, such as one for Latino students.
As we emerge from the pandemic, [students] “They wanted to be together, they wanted to do things in the community, but they didn’t know how to engage and interact with each other,” Thomas said. “The orientation program is shifting in that direction — getting to know each other again. That’s what we’re trying to do, but it can’t be just one program type.”
Orientation offices are also changing how they train student leaders, often in light of the same issues the pandemic has caused for freshmen.
Osborne said many students these days are reluctant to sign up as orientation leaders. Just as freshmen don’t want to stay in dorms, Osborne said families also want older students to stay home over the summer rather than remain on campus.
They also come in with less prior knowledge, Brister said. Before the pandemic, orientation leaders typically held leadership positions in high school, such as club presidents, Brister said. Now, students are coming in with less experience speaking in public or facilitating small groups; some have never experienced an in-person orientation, and now they have to lead most of the new-year activities (though this has become less of an issue as students who experienced the pandemic in college graduate).
CU’s orientation leaders, known as “journey leaders,” currently take an eight-week leadership course in preparation for orientation. Brister said they learn how to run an orientation event, leadership skills, and how to engage students who may be socially anxious. Before the pandemic, all of that information was crammed into just four days of training.
“This is critical to building a culture for our student leaders of how we want to communicate what it means to be a part of the University at Buffalo, how we want to present the university to our freshman class, how we want to represent the university, and why we’re doing what we’re doing,” Brister said. “This is critical to building a culture for our student leaders and then hopefully convey that to the entire freshman class.”
And with college costs so high, it’s more important than ever for universities to offer support and make sure students and their families know where to get that help, San Jose State’s Walcott said.
If a university does not provide all the necessary support in its orientation program, students may end up transferring to a university that does.
“College campuses need to understand that this is a competitive market,” Wolcott says. “If they don’t roll out the red carpet and everyone understands, ‘It’s orientation season and it’s everybody’s job,’ they’re going to really struggle.”