In late June, thousands of high school students around the world will throw their mortarboards in the air, trade their locker pockets for dorm decorations and clear their schedules for UB's freshman orientation.
UB's orientation process consists of several two-day orientations, running from July 8 to Aug. 3. This year's orientations will offer a wider variety of programs and information about academics and clubs, according to Matthew Weigand, UB's director of new student programs.
"One big change is the section on the first day where everyone listens to every program," said Weigand. "This year, there will be six or seven programs going on at once, and the students can choose which programs they want to attend."
According to Weigand, the programs will include Greek life and other clubs, campus dining and shops, and intramural and recreational activities.
Organizers have also shifted the focus of the first afternoon of orientation. Weigand said students will spend their first day at UB with representatives from the academic apartments in which they are interested.
Every year, UB chooses a summer reading book to start preparing freshman for the school year. This year students will read "Nickel and Dimed: On Not Getting By in America" by Barbara Ehrenreich.
Weigand's team partnered up with Barbara Bono, associate professor of English, and the Gender Institute to publicize Ehrenreich's book.
Bono, who was looking to involve Ehrenreich in next year's Gender Week, said she was delighted that they were able to collaborate with Student Affairs to help bring Ehrenreich's material to campus.
"Our theme for Gender Week is 'Women Mean Business,' and her book centrally addresses the tremendous problem of minimum wage in service industries," said Bono. "Ehrenreich goes to three different jobs, as a waitress, a house cleaner and a floor employee at Wal-Mart, and tries to figure out if she can get by on just the money made from those jobs."
Bono is looking forward to sharing this book with thousands of incoming freshmen.
"We thought this would be a fabulous book to bring to the attention of the UB community, and we think there will be lots off feedback on minimum wage," said Bono. "UB101 and some introductory English classes will be using this book in their curriculum."
Ehrenreich is scheduled to visit UB on Oct. 27, 2004.
Another program to help freshmen acquaint themselves at school is the UB101 class, a one-credit hour seminar course that meets once a week for 50 minutes. The course is designed to teach and guide students through their new college environment.
Weigand said the class is an asset to freshman.
"We get better persistence rates and higher GPAs from students who take UB101," he said.
Janet Mather, an adviser in the College of Arts and Sciences' advisement office and instructor for UB101, said she fully supports the program.
"I think it gives them someone on campus to relate to early on," Mather said. "Their first semester seems scary, and it gives them someone to come to with questions."
Although UB101 isn't mandatory for incoming freshmen, Mather says she sometimes wishes it were.
"They get the right information at the right time," she said. "The know the UB system and its resources. They learn how to register, whereas other students may kind of flounder when registration time comes."
As far as getting the word out about UB101 at freshman orientation in the summer, Mather says it's discussed in the academic overview, and at the parent orientation as well.
"The problem is that right now there aren't enough seats for everyone to take it," Mather said.
Mather said she plans to sign up to teach a section of UB101 in the fall.
"I've taught it for at least 10 years and will continue doing so," she said. "I like to teach it because I like the student contact, and I think everybody should teach it."
Officials expect this year's freshman class will return to normal size after last year's dramatic increase in new students.
"What we've been told is that the freshman class will go down to normal, which is about 3,200 students," said Weigand.
