New student orientation begins June 15 at ECU

Published Jun 10, 2009 by
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GREENVILLE, N.C. —   New student orientation begins June 15 and continues through July 21 at East Carolina University. 

More than 4,000 students – both first-year and transfer students – are expected to visit campus over that time, attending one of eight, two-day orientation sessions or the special session for transfer students. Each session will bring about 540 students and a comparable number of family members to campus, said Karen Smith, associate director of the First Year Center at ECU. 

Students will get a taste of college life by eating in the dining hall and staying in the residence halls. They will meet with an advisor and register for fall classes, get their student ID and learn about student organizations and academic requirements, among other activities.

At the same time, family members will participate in a program designed to introduce them to campus resources and provide tips on how to help their students manage the transition to college

Student orientation materials received an upgrade this year, as traditional paper handouts were traded in for a computer flash drive linked to university information. Instead of carting around a bag of brochures, booklets and other items during their orientation stay, new students will be fitted with a 2G flash drive, specially loaded with ECU information. 

Smith said the switch came about for several reasons: to save paper, to keep academic departments from spending money on printed items, and to please incoming students who are accustomed to the technology. 

“The cool thing about the flash drive is that it will be linked to Web sites. As the Web site changes, the information available on the flash drive will change,” Smith said. “In that way, hopefully, this is something the students can hold on to and use for their full four years here.”

The flash drives will have a key chain on one end to promote portability and extra storage space so students can save documents and class projects to the flash drive throughout their academic career. Students will be able to access Web sites, PDFs and other online resources, including orientation presentations and the now only-online university course catalogs.