Orientation reflects greater campus-wide problems

First-year and transfer student orientation made its shift back to being completely in-person this August, but it wasn’t without its hiccups.

Lacey Solheid, the former associate director of programming, left CSB/SJU in late January of this year. This absence left remaining staff and four student orientation coordinators to plan and execute the orientation schedule without her usual help. This position was filled by Andrew Kroska in early September.

“It was overwhelming because Lacey’s shoes were very big to fill and orientation was definitely different without her,” said Antiniqua Burrows, one of two Bennie orientation coordinators. “Overall, I felt like the position should have been filled before [orientation], not afterwards, just because orientation is such an intensive program.”

Instead of replacing Solheid’s position before orientation, Dean of Students Jody Terhaar and Associate Director of Finances and Operations Trish Doran combined to take her place.

Their duty was to manage the student orientation coordinators in their summer planning, in addition to their normal duties. Doran and Terhaar were unable to be reached for an interview.

Several Bennie orientation leaders felt as though more was expected from them than their Johnnie counterparts.

“It felt like we Bennies were held to a higher standard than the Johnnies,” said Clare Gans, senior orientation leader. “[Bennie leaders] had meetings at 7 a.m., and the Johnnies didn’t… we also had spur-of-the-moment meetings at night that were not in the schedule.”

First-years also brought up differing treatment between Bennies and Johnnies during orientation. This has been a long-debated issue on campus.

“[Johnnies] just had more breaks than we did” said Lexi Williams, CSB first-year. “Outside of orientation, I’ve already noticed a lot of little things that they can do that we can’t.”

Gans shared Williams’s sense of inequality with Johnnies.

“[Bennies being held to a higher standard] isn’t just an orientation thing, this is all across campus…it sucks to see it happen again in yet another situation,” Gans said.

Organization and time management were also issues during orientation this year.

Both first-years and orientation leaders agreed that the orientation schedule was not as organized as it could have been due to extreme weather conditions and a lack of time available for planning.

An unexpected tornado warning left groups in basements for several hours and set the expected orientation schedule behind. Other extreme weather interfered with events like the class picture which was originally meant to be outside.

“My orientation leader seemed like she was prepared, but then she’d hear outside information from the orientation coordinators and plans would change very quickly,” Williams said. “We would show up to events and not know why we were there.”

Even with tornado warnings, lack of experience in the staff and some conflict among leaders and staff, orientation went on. In-person education about responsible alcohol consumption, a sexual assault lecture, campus tours, diversity training and evening activities all contributed to efforts to welcome and acclimate new students onto campus.

The CSB candlelight dinner and class photos cultivated a sense of community among the new students.

“Being able to interact with students and provide signs of normalcy into the school year was definitely a success for me,” Burrows said.