As the start of the Fall 2011 semester approaches, IUP is gearing up for student move-in and other events that celebrate the new academic year and welcome new students into the community.
The move-in process will begin with smaller groups of students in mid-August and reach its highest volume August 26–28.
Moving into their residence halls during the week of August 15 will be community assistants, cheerleaders, marching band participants, and members of the volleyball, field hockey, and football teams. Practices and rehearsals for these groups are ongoing.
On August 20, more than six hundred new students participating in the College Undergraduate Success Program (CUSP) Early Entrance Experience will move into their residence halls. CUSP, sponsored by the Department of Developmental Studies, is a pre-college program designed to ease the transition process and promote college success.
On August 22, approximately 225 new international students will arrive at the university. Each semester, IUP hosts more than six hundred international students from more than seventy countries. New international students have orientation activities before the beginning of classes.
New and transfer students who are living in university-owned residence facilities will move in August 26 and 27. All eight of the residence halls constructed as part of the university's Residential Revival, a $245-million project that was the largest of its kind in the nation, were completed and ready for students in August 2010.
The remainder of students living on campus will move in August 28 from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.
More than 3,500 students live in the new residence facilities, and 664 will be in McCarthy, Elkin, and Whitmyre halls. Nearly 130 upperclassmen will live in University Towers.
During move-in for freshmen and transfer students, a number of bottled water stations will be set up for students, parents, and move-in workers. Water is being provided by IUP Greek organizations and St. Thomas More University Parish.
For motorists' convenience, Sam Clutter, interim director of Public Safety, recommends they avoid the campus area during the move-in dates by using Philadelphia Street and the Rose Street Extension.
IUP officials have worked to make community residents and merchants aware of move-in day and the expected traffic associated with it.
Parents received staggered times for move-in, so that it is spread throughout the day. As in past years, arriving students and their families are directed to a staging area in the Kovalchick Convention and Athletic Complex parking lot, and they will be released from there to the appropriate building. More than one hundred student workers and volunteers from a number of student organizations, along with all university police officers, will be on duty all or part of the two major move-in days.
In addition, about 120 community assistants; PACERS (Peers Assisting the Community Education of Residents), formerly known as peer mentors; and graduate and professional residence hall staff members will be working inside the residence halls to greet and assist students and family members.
Professionals from the areas of Housing and Residence Life, Public Safety, and Student Life begin developing move-in day procedures, signs, work schedules, and publications during the Fall semester of the previous year, according to Clutter. “We have put in many, many hours of planning and work, but the ongoing cooperation and understanding of the Indiana area community continues to be key to a successful move-in process.”
Aside from move-in, a number of events are planned to mark the start of the academic year.
On August 26 at 9:00 a.m., David Werner, interim president, will preside over the “Opening of the Academic Year: 2011–2012” in the Performing Arts Center's Fisher Auditorium. The program, which is open to the community, will include remarks by IUP leadership. A reception in the Oak Grove will immediately follow.
Freshman Convocation, the formal welcome to new students, will be August 28 at 5:00 p.m. in Fisher Auditorium. The event, which is free and open to the community, will feature Jack Stamp, director of Band Studies, Music Department chair, and the 2008–2009 University Professor, as the keynote presenter.
The University Professor award is designed to recognize, reward, and encourage IUP faculty members who are actively engaged in research and scholarly activity that advance their discipline or the teaching of their discipline.
The convocation program also will feature the 2011–2012 University Professor, Lynn Botelho, as master of ceremonies and remarks by Andrew Longacre, of Danielsville, a junior Safety Sciences and Political Science major who serves as the student member of the university's Council of Trustees.
President Werner will host a cookout in the Oak Grove immediately following the Freshman Convocation ceremony.
Classes for the Fall semester begin August 29 and end December 12.