Lightning strikes twice: "When that huge storm came last week," Michael L. Davenport noted yesterday, "I was unaware of what a fantastic view the fourth floor of Environment 3 had. When a storm came again, I didn't want the opportunity to be wasted twice." Davenport's department, information systems and technology, has been involved in installing classroom audio-visual equipment in the new building, and he managed to be there in the early hours of Thursday to catch this image

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Orientation starts with rez move-in

Take a deep breath. Close to six thousand new first-year students will be arriving at Waterloo this weekend, and it takes a village — or several Villages — to welcome them, get them settled in, orient them, equip them and get them ready for the first day of classes on September 12. By mid-summer more than 6,200 students had accepted offers of admission, and the official target for November 1, when some of them will have changed their minds, is 5,682.

More thousands of upper-year students will also be streaming back to the Waterloo, Kitchener and Cambridge campuses over the weekend and all next week, but they already have WatCards and know how to use them, and can tell the difference between a PAC and a PAS. On the other hand, they don’t necessarily know where “EV3” and “M3” are — new buildings, both of them, Environment 3 and Math 3, where a number of large classes are scheduled into brand-new lecture halls.

But the emphasis for the next few days will be on the newcomers. About 80 per cent of them will live in on-campus residences. Arrivals are staggered for the sake of reducing traffic jams. Students have been advised to arrive on Sunday if they’re living in the north and south quads of Ron Eydt Village or Village I, the odd-numbered floors and north quads in UW Place, or the east wing of Mackenzie King Village. Arrival day is Monday for the other parts of REV, V1, UWP and MKV, and for Columbia Lake Village.

Several hundred Department of Housing and Residences staff and volunteers will be on hand to help incoming students move into their new homes. They include a few dozen faculty members and senior staff from other parts of the university, meeting new students (and their anxious parents) on Sunday or Monday as part of what’s called the Move-in Engagement Project. Key to the move-in, and to the whole term, are the residence dons, who have been on campus the past several days being trained on everything from emergency procedures to detecting loneliness (right, with Boomer, the new mascot of the Bombshelter pub). The residences’ web site includes suggested lists of “what to bring” and, more urgently, “what not to bring”, including candles and incense, weapons, pets, “your own furniture”, heaters, air conditioners and cooking appliances.

Organized floor meetings in the residences (with pizza) are set for 4:30 Monday, and that’s the beginning of orientation activities for most students. Before the night is over, they'll also experience the PlayFair games event on the Village green, and a welcome-to-campus evening that includes some remarks from university president Feridun Hamdullahpur. Orientation activities continue Tuesday morning, with greetings from the various faculty deans and getting-to-know-you events from breakfast time to dinner.

Central check-in for Orientation Week is in the PAC on Sunday from 10:00 to 5:00 or Monday from 8:30 to 5:00. Registration will reopen Tuesday at the Ask-Me booth in the Student Life Centre multi-purpose room, and continues there for the rest of the week, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. First-year students will need their WatCard to register.

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What's open on the Labour Day weekend

Meanwhile, a long weekend is at hand. In general, the university’s offices and services will be closed on Monday, the Labour Day holiday, except for those involved in serving the newly arrived students — and except for a few essential services that never shut down: UW police, 519-888-4911 (ext. 22222 on campus); Student Life Centre, turnkey desk 519-888-4434 (ext. 84434 on campus); maintenance emergencies ext. 33793. The Dana Porter and Davis Centre libraries are open noon to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, but closed Monday. The Columbia Icefield is open Saturday and Sunday, closed Monday. The Physical Activities Complex is closed for athletics use (except for the pool) all weekend.

However, all sorts of administrative and support services will be in operation during the weekend for the new students’ benefit. Some details:

• WatCard office, Student Life Centre lower level, open Sunday 8:30 to 4:00 and Monday 8:30 to 4:30.
• REVelation cafeteria, Ron Eydt Village, open Sunday 11:00 to 7:00, Monday 9:00 to 3:30.
• Mudies cafeteria, Village I, open Sunday 10 a.m. to 12:30 a.m., Monday 8:30 to 3:30 and 7 p.m. to 12:30 a.m.
• Tim Hortons, SLC, open Monday 10:30 to 3:30 (24-hour operation will begin September 12).
• Tim Hortons, South Campus Hall, open Monday 11:30 to 3:30.
• Parking services office, Commissary building, open Sunday and Monday 9:00 to 3:00.
• Bookstore, Waterloo Store, E-Smart and Write Stuff, South Campus Hall, open Saturday 12 noon to 4 p.m., Sunday and Monday 10:00 to 4:00.
• CampusTech, SLC, open Sunday and Monday 10:00 to 4:00.

In addition, the housing and residence office in the Student Life Centre will be open Sunday and Monday, 8:30 to 4:30, and that includes the off-campus housing office. “We still have some vacancies for fall residence,” says Bronwyn Forbes, marketing coordinator for the department. “The application can be found on our website, and we will be making offers as vacancies become available. There are still lots of spaces off campus for any student searching.”

The last “conference” users of Ron Eydt Village are on their way home today. The complex has been use all summer for everything from a high school field hockey camp to a conference on Banach algebra (“an involutive monoid in the symmetric monoidal closed category of real Banach spaces”, one reference source explains). The changing of the guard come at 4:00 this afternoon, when conference staff, part of the food services department, turn over the REV front desk to the housing department once more.

Finally . . . everybody on campus, and off campus for that matter, is invited to the premiere performance of this year's "Single and Sexy" this morning. It's the 23rd year for what's described as "a collective play about attitudes", presented each year during orientation to get first-year students thinking and talking about sexual issues and a whole lot more: homesickness, drugs, plagiarism, eating disorders, cultural diversity, suicide. (Left: last year's cast.) Today's free performance, by an all-student cast, starts at 10:00 in the Humanities Theatre. There will be three performances a day next week, Tuesday through Thursday, with thousands of new students scheduled to be in the audiences. “None of the material offered in this production is meant to offend,” they’re told in the program brochure. “The medium of theatre is a powerful tool in the educational process. There may be issues covered during the performance that evoke an emotional response in audience members. Please speak with your orientation leader if you feel upset and wish to talk with a professional.”

CAR

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