UHDS News

[Corvallis Gazette-Times, Oct. 3, 2012]

Excerpt:

The group discussed and debated a motion by workgroup member Betty Griffiths to recommend the formation of another workgroup to examine on-campus housing.

“The intent of this motion is to ask that people seriously examine this and seriously work on it,” Griffiths said.

The motion posed a conflict in the eyes of workgroup member Dan Larson, associate director for operations and facilities and Oregon State’s University Housing and Dining Services.

“This motion puts on hold work that we are doing right now to address the need,” Larson said, noting that the university doesn’t want to wait for recommendations of a workgroup.

“If we have one group looking at student housing while OSU also is looking at it. … It seems that they would be at odds with each other.”

Ultimately Griffiths abandoned the idea of a new workgroup and suggested attacking the issue through OSU’s own processes, including an update of its master plan.

“I just want something to happen. Whether it’s through (OSU) or another workgroup,” Griffiths said.

Larson agreed, and the workgroup eventually passed a motion that “requests that OSU place a priority on exploring public-private partnerships and other options for innovative on-campus village-style development to house students, faculty and staff.”

Read the full article by reporter James Day.

Campus Recycling, the OSU Sustainability Office, University Housing and Dining Services and the Student Sustainability Initiative are recruiting resident students to serve as paid Eco-Representatives (Eco-reps) in three residence halls this academic year (applicants from all halls are welcome).

Eco-reps will work to educate their peers about sustainable lifestyles and resources, assist with marketing and outreach efforts for sustainability programs and plan and execute sustainability-focused events.

Successful candidates must have excellent communication skills and thrive with minimal supervision, working 5-6 hours/week. Starting pay is $8.80/hour; applications due Sep. 30.  To apply, see the full position description.

[Corvallis Gazette-Times, Sept. 20, 2012] — Now that Oregon State University students who live on campus have finished moving in, they’re ready for fall term classes to begin on Monday.

According to University Housing and Dining Services, 4,290 students will be living on campus this fall, or roughly 85 percent of OSU freshmen. Dan Larson, the associate director of operations and facilities for University Housing and Dining Services, was pleased with how smoothly the two-day move-in went.

Now, he said, students can start to focus on other matters.

“For domestic students, there is a tremendous amount of excitement and uncertainty, and a sense of loss in terms of family,” Larson said. “For our international population, working through administrative processes can be challenging … coming to a different country and trying to make sense of everything can be very stressful.”

In all, about 67 percent of the new students housed by University Housing and Dining Services are freshmen, including Kyle Sweeney, a computer science major from Portland, and Hunter Murga, a chemistry major from Klamath Falls. They moved into their fourth-floor room in Wilson Hall on Tuesday. Students there can share a two-person room and pay a little more than $7,000 a year, not including a meal plan.

“It’s less nerves and more, ‘I’m free!’” Murga said. “It’s like a new start.”

Murga and Sweeney, like many new students living on campus, connected through the University Housing and Dining Service’s roommate matching network. Through Facebook, they discussed things they have in common, like their love for video games and how clean they want to keep the room.

“It’ll probably go in a cycle. It’ll be clean for a while, then messy,” Sweeney said.

Though the roommates said their focus will be on academics, they plan to take advantage of opportunities to socialize.

About 14 percent of students living on campus are international students.

Htet Aung Lin, a first year student in the INTO-OSU program, didn’t have the chance to connect with his roommate before he entered the dorm room, and that’s common for international students.

Lin arrived to his residence hall, the International Living-Learning Center, last weekend from his home country of Myanmar. He initially was surprised by the number of foreign students at the International Living-Learning Center. About three-fourths of the 312 students who live there come from other nations.

“I was thinking, there are so many Chinese students, but that’s not strange to me,” he said, noting that Myanmar also is home to many people from China.

Lin was glad to see the accommodations of the International Living-Learning Center, too. “It’s pretty nice compared to the ones I’ve seen.”

Students who live in a double room in the building pay about $9,000 a year, according to University Housing and Dining Services.

Now that the students are settled, the next task facing housing officials is to make them feel at home.

“They do all sorts of activities to engage with the students and help them feel they’re a part of something,” Larson said. But keeping students focused on their studies as their first priority also is important.

“What they’re going to see is hundreds of opportunities that have potential to keep them from why they’re here.”

Read the full article by GT reporter Joce DeWitt. Photos by Amanda Cowan.

Thank you to Barometer photo editor Neil Abrew, who took these photos during the first day of move-in (Sept. 18) at Weatherford Hall. The photos ran in the “back-to-school” issue of The Daily Barometer on Sept. 19, 2012.

[The Daily Barometer, Sept. 19, 2010] — If you’re a returning Oregon State University student, you may have noticed that campus was a bit quieter Monday than it usually is the week before classes begin each fall.

In past years, it was common to find wide-eyed freshman wandering the streets of Corvallis — locating the buildings they have classes in, searching for convenience stores to load up on junk food for their dorm room or hoping to stumble upon a late-night house party somewhere off campus — as early as eight days before fall quarter began.

But, in comparison to past OSU freshmen classes, this year’s crop of incoming freshmen had the beginning of its college experience delayed by a couple of days thanks to a shortened CONNECT week and the subsequent push back of move-in days into residence halls.

After years of freshmen enjoying a weeklong CONNECT week, this year’s CONNECT events will begin today and last just four days, and move-in day was switched from Sunday to the middle of the week.

Of the 4,290  students moving into residence halls this fall, come moved in yesterday while others are doing so today, depending on the residence hall they’re moving into.

The changes are a result of a two-year study conducted by the CONNECT Week Task Force, which was made up of 15 OSU faculty from various departments. The task force was asked to to evaluate the previous OSU orientation program and recommend changes.

The official report put together by the task force highlighted a number of concerns with the previous weeklong model, including:

• Stress on campus: Staff, faculty and student leaders are tapped out by the time classes begin.
• Unstructured time: New students experience large amounts of down time, and as a result, improper conduct can become an issue. It may also lead to students experiencing homesickness or wanting to go home for the rest of CONNECT week or the weekend before classes begin.
• A weeklong CONNECT can lead to unhealthy habits forming before classes start, such as lack of sleep, alcohol uses/abuse and poor time management.

The task force’s recommendations focused on shortening CONNECT — the weeklong model was longer than most other orientation schedules at schools across the Pac-12 — and making it more strongly tied to academics.

Leslee Mayers, assistant director of New Student Programs and Family Outreach, and a member of the task force, said the new structure has been well received across campus.

“We have really only heard positive things about the change,” Mayers said. “The campus seems excited to have the shortened schedule. To put on programming for eight days straight is very taxing on the OSU community.”

“A shortened CONNECT allows a more focused and shorter period of intensity for the staff and programming, which makes for better quality programming.”

Mayers said this year’s freshmen aren’t necessarily missing out on anything past freshmen classes got to experience with CONNECT.

“We decided to try and group certain topics together in a better effort to focus students throughout CONNECT,” Mayers said. “Events don’t necessarily get eliminated, but they may have moved to another time in the year or they were combined to make a bigger, stronger event.”

While the task force didn’t have jurisdiction over what day or days freshmen can move into residence halls, University Housing & Dining Services accepted the task force’s recommendation on having move-in day center around the beginning of CONNECT week.

“If freshmen continued to move-in on Sunday, there would be a lot of lag time before CONNECT week started,” said Brian Stroup, assistant director of Operations and Facilities at UHDS. “We chose to stagger the move-in days [Tuesday and Wednesday] because it’s a good way to eliminate lines and frustration and ease the flow of students.”

Another benefit of having students move in on a weekday is that many campus resources aren’t open on weekends.

“We don’t want to have parents leaving with questions because certain resources weren’t open on move-in days,” said Ann Marie Klotz, associate director for Residential Education.

CONNECT events begin tonight with “It Starts Now,” an hour-long program beginning at 6 p.m. at LaSells Stewart Center that will prepare students for a variety of situations they may face during college. Freshmen are also highly encouraged to attend the New Student Picnic, scheduled for 5 p.m. tomorrow in the Memorial Union Quad. A ticket, which can be purchased for $7 at one of the on-campus dining centers is required to get into the picnic.

Read the full article by Grady Garrett, The Daily Barometer.

[Corvallis Gazette-Times, Sept. 19, 2012] — Corvallis residents likely noticed a spike in the city’s population Tuesday, when somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 Oregon State University students and their families took part in the first day of the annual campus move-in.

Hundreds of University Housing and Dining Services staff members and OSU volunteers helped students move into seven residence halls.

“It went really well,” said Brian Stroup, the assistant director of operations and facilities for University Housing and Dining Services. “Spreading it over two days really helped disperse traffic.”

The rest of the 4,290 residents who will live on campus move into the 11 remaining buildings today, including cooperative houses and the International Living-Learning Center. University Housing and Dining Services will accommodate about 85 percent of OSU’s freshmen.

The number of on-campus residents — 231 more than last fall — has steadily increased during the past few years. OSU started the 2011 academic year with 4,059 residents. In the fall of 2010, residence halls were home to 3,957 students.

Wilson Hall was among the residence buildings that recently was upgraded. It has room for 80 residents on each of its six floors. Incoming residents will find new windows, flooring and bathroom renovations.

Sackett Hall has a new fire safety system and new sewer lines have been installed at several locations.

David Covey, one of two fourth-floor resident assistants, spent most of Tuesday morning greeting new students and helping them to get settled.

“My wing is filling up fast,” he said. “We’re at capacity.”

…

Read the full article by reporter Joce DeWitt. Photos by Amanda Cowan.

View the video at the source: KVAL TV, Sept. 18, 2012.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Mini fridges and moving boxes were piled high on the sidewalks of Oregon State on Tuesday, signified move-in day at the University. It also marked the start of a process that will bring nearly 5,000 people to campus each day for the next two days.

Freshman like Makenzie Reed will join 4,290 freshman moving in this week at Oregon State. She said that the wait all summer was well worth it.

“I think I brought way too much stuff, but I think I was just excited about moving in,” Reed said, looking around her crammed dorm room. “I thought I’d bring my whole life with me.”

In years past, freshman moved in on a Sunday. This year, however, the school decided to change the process up.

“A weekday is definitely adding a different element with all the normal traffic on campus during a business day,” said Brian Stroup, Assistant Director of Operations and Facilities for University Housing and Dining Services.

Stroup said that the thousands of extra people on campus called for a lot of extra planning.

“We’ve been in talks with Oregon State Police and parking services and conference services and a whole lot of partners across campus for about a year now, getting everything in place to make sure we’re all on the same page,” he said.

Over 500 student and staff volunteers helped on Tuesday, making the moves a little easier to handle.

“There’s a lot of fun, there’s a lot of excitement,” said volunteer Joel Bumgarner. “Families are all here, they’re trying to figure things out. The moms getting mad at the kid, the kids getting mad at mom and dad so it’s a lot of fun.”

Roughlyhalf of the registered freshman will move in Tuesday, while the rest will move in on Wednesday. The goal, Stroup said, is to make the move as seamless as possible without a lot of congestion.

“Within those days we split up the floors by arrival time windows, hoping folks stick to that as much as possible,” he said.

As for Reed, she said she’s ready for the fun to begin.

“I think I’m most looking forward to rush, meeting new people and taking classes that I’m interested in.” said Reed.

The University of Oregon will host its move-in day this Thursday, September 21.

View the video at the source: KMTR News, Sept. 18, 2012.

On September 18 and 19, new students will be moving into rooms on the OSU campus with their families. This will create increased traffic and congestion, as we anticipate an additional 5,000 people on campus each day. Faculty and staff on campus should expect limited parking and potential traffic delays. We appreciate your patience during this busy time.

A free shuttle will be running from 7 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. from the Benton County Fairgrounds on a 15-minute loop on both days. Staff and faculty may park there and ride the shuttle in to campus to help reduce parking congestion on campus. Staff and faculty who elect to do this will receive a 50% off coupon to be used for a meal at any of our UHDS Dining Centers.

If faculty and staff would like to volunteer to help out with opening, signing up is easy: http://oregonstate.edu/uhds/volunteer. The shifts are three hours each, including a short volunteer orientation session. You will receive an OSU t-shirt, water bottle, and a meal card to use at any UHDS dining facility as a thank you for helping make Move-In a success!

Please consider volunteering. We need many hands to help our students transition quickly and smoothly into their residence hall or cooperative house. We appreciate any time you can give to our new students and their families.

For any issues, concerns or questions about our Residence Hall and Co-op House move-in, please contact University Housing and Dining Services staff at 541-737-4771.

Map of shuttle route:

(Note: Permission given to shuttles to use the Campus Way bike path through the OSU Dairy Farm to cut the drive time between campus and the fairgrounds.)

Oregon State University’s University Housing & Dining Services (UHDS) is seeking qualified applicants for a newly open Resident Director position for the current academic year.

The Resident Director (RD) is a 52-week live-in, professional responsible for the overall administration of one or more residence halls housing 200-500 students. The Resident Director supervises primarily undergraduate students in creating safe, educational, caring, and inclusive communities. The Residential Education Unit strives to foster students’ personal awareness, appreciation of others and development of skills to succeed in a diverse, global society and encourages them to demonstrate responsible and ethical behavior in their communities. Additionally, Residential Education provides opportunities for students to develop leadership skills.

This position is a year-round (12-month) 1.0 FTE unclassified position. Salary range is $28,500-$30,500. This position includes a partially furnished apartment, utilities, and a meal plan in addition to the standard OSU benefits package.  OSU may approve a small pet (cat, dog, or fish) for residency in staff apartments – subject to UHDS Staff Pet Policy.

For a list of qualifications, a complete job description, and to apply online, visit posting #0008497 at  http://jobs.oregonstate.edu/applicants/Central?quickFind=59779.  Position closes October 1, 2012.  OSU is an AA/EOE.