Members of the Class of 2010 will begin their college careers with what officials hope to be a more relaxed, welcoming freshman orientation.
This year, administrators added an extra day to orientation and reorganized social events so that students "didn't feel quite as frazzled," Assistant Dean of Students Ryan Lombardi said.
Among the featured events, a party at the Nasher Museum of Art--which was completed last year--will introduce new students to the University's burgeoning arts scene.
Taking advantage of the soon-to-be-completed West Campus plaza, administrators have also planned a "big kick-off bash"--complete with live music and other entertainment--as a means of bringing the entire student body together, Lombardi said.
Although the addition of high-profile events, like the soiree at the Nasher, is expected to be popular, Lombardi expressed hope that the best-received change will be the extra day of orientation.
"We're moving them in on Tuesday--we're giving them the whole day to move in, no programming that afternoon," he said. "We didn't want to fill an extra day, because we realize it's a hectic time."
Lombardi added that the change was implemented after receiving consistent feedback from students.
"Increasingly, students were saying that it was great, but 'Hey, I was pretty tired and overwhelmed by the end of it,'" he said.
Also for the first time, the student activities fair-which has traditionally been geared toward freshmen during orientation-will take place several days later to include other undergraduate classes.
Although the summer reading program will continue as before, faculty members will now lead additional discussion sessions in East Campus residence halls in order to better examine the issues of this year's selection, "My Sister's Keeper."
"We've been so far 100 percent successful at giving [summer reading books] real life," said Larry Moneta, vice president for student affairs. He added that he expects the book's author, Jodi Picoult, to speak at Duke as part of this year's events.
Along with other pre-orientation programs, such as the popular Project BUILD and Project WILD, the newly created Project Waves will allow incoming students to experience water sports and marine life along the North Carolina coast.
Lombardi said interest in the program was the greatest of any pre-orientation program he had ever seen--so great, in fact, that applicants had to be turned away by the dozens.
"There were 149 official applicants, but we had told a few people not to even bother applying to Waves since we were way over capacity," said senior Matt Hoffman, a director of the program.
Last year, the University's alterations to orientation focused largely on Duke-Durham relations, and this year's events will see a continuation of that effort.
In order to expose incoming students to the city that will be their home for four years, freshmen will be taken to a number of events around the Bull City.
"This will be the second year we take the entire class to American Tobacco [Complex] for a barbecue and to a Durham Bulls baseball game," Moneta said.
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