Move-in week wraps up

The first wave of Pitt’s incoming freshmen arrived as early as Monday, mostly green and… The first wave of Pitt’s incoming freshmen arrived as early as Monday, mostly green and untested in the ways of campus life.

Those who signed up for the final August PittStart trickled in first, many eager to pick up their PantherCards, schedule their first semester’s classes and start the long haul toward graduation.

About 600 undergraduate volunteers in a variety of neon Arrival Survival shirts stood waiting for them. By 10 a.m., the volunteers manned a web of cart stations and parking lots that funneled more than 8,000 residents into Pitt’s 19 dormitories before the week’s end. On Tuesday, the first day of freshmen move-in, volunteers helped more than 4,500 students.

The mass migration was among the largest in Pitt’s history, and Arrival Survival organizers assembled their largest staff ever to help Pitt welcome new students from almost every state and more than 100 countries. Together, their efforts launched another academic year.

Arrival Survival

Arrival Survival, a coordinated move-in effort by Panther Central and other University departments, has a straightforward goal: Help students move into campus housing while minimizing impact on the surrounding community.

The simplicity stops there.

The University plans and prepares months in advance for the arrival of thousands of students, their parents and their belongings, coordinators said. That planning includes sifting through hundreds of applications from potential student volunteers, assigning each incoming resident a parking lot and move-in time and planning traffic control with the Pitt police.

Organizers had to turn away more than 150 volunteer applicants, said Angeline Noel and Lauren Kelly, Arrival Survival coordinators.

“You would be surprised how many people want to work for us this week,” Noel said Friday afternoon in the Schenley Quadrangle. The week’s battle with broken carts and slow elevators had largely subsided, but as she spoke, a steady of flow students and parents weaved around her, carrying boxes and pushing blue-and-gold housing carts. “It probably has something to do with the fact that they get to move in a week early.”

Under the pair’s guidance and with the help of University officials, including Associate Dean of Students and Director of Residence Life Shawn Brooks, the week went smoothly and, to the delight of many movers, sweetly. During the five-day Arrival Survival stretch, volunteers handed out more than 5,000 slices of pizza and 8,000 ice cream snacks.

“Even when things go well, things are stressful,” Kelly said. “We try to provide some amenities for the parents and the students, especially the first-years. That first move can be rough.”

Among the collection of move-in stories reported for this article, a few stood out as examples of the conflicting energy and emotion associated with Arrival Survival.

For one freshman moving into Tower A, the move turned from stressful to sour after her father’s moving van broke down about a half hour outside the city.

“[My dad] decided to bring his old, beat-up work van instead of his nice, new truck,” said Taylor Hartley, an incoming psychology and pre-med student from Economy Borough, Pa. “Well, it broke down. They transferred maybe half my stuff into our other car, and the van is about to get towed.”

Despite the vehicular troubles, Hartley was optimistic about her first days at Pitt. “Once we got here, things were moving great,” she said. “We know everyone is doing the best they can. There are just so many new people.”

Thousands of upperclassmen also moved in last week, and some parents returned to Pitt as alumni, shipping off another generation to learn and grow in Oakland.

Barry Rhodes of Lancaster, Pa., is one such parent. During Arrival Survival, Rhodes joked that his daughter decided to attend Pitt to follow in her father’s footsteps.

“The real reason is that Pitt is an awesome university,” Rhodes said. “They also offer  . . . 15th-century Renaissance history. She wants to be a curator when she graduates, or a historian. You can do that kind of thing at Pitt.”

Orientation

Learning to live in a new community is not always an easy process. To ease the pains of assimilation, Pitt’s Office of First Year Experience invites all freshmen and transfer students to participate in New Student Orientation.

This year’s events ran from Tuesday to Sunday and included information sessions, campus and city tours, social events and ceremonies to introduce new students to on-campus life.

Perhaps the highest-attended event took place Wednesday, when about 3,000 freshmen packed the Petersen Events Center and listened as Pitt Chancellor Mark Nordenberg and other administrators hosted the convocation ceremony.

New Provost Patricia Beeson, participating in her first convocation in her role as chief academic officer, started the ceremony. She reminded the new students that Pitt is almost as old as the United States itself and has contributed a great deal to the nation’s prosperity since that time.

“I’m honored and humbled to welcome the class of 2014,” Beeson said. “We’ve been welcoming new students to our community for over 225 years now. Over those years, each class has made its own indelible mark on the University and on our whole society. We are sure this newest class will not disappoint, for it is among the brightest we have so far seen.”

Beeson promptly introduced Nordenberg, participating in his 15th convocation, who spoke for about 20 minutes about the best ways to “find a niche at Pitt.”

Nordenberg warned about the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse and advised students to worry not only about academics, but also about physical and social health.

“We know that some amazing and inspiring individuals will emerge from within this group to continue Pitt’s long and gloried history,” Nordenberg said. “We also know that each public accomplishment your class makes will be accompanied by tens of thousands of more personal victories that are every bit as important.”

New student Kyle Schacherer said he enjoyed learning about Pitt’s longstanding history at the ceremony.

“I enjoyed the speeches and all the bad jokes — Nordenberg’s especially,” Schacherer said after the event. “I’ve definitely got a little more Pitt pride now.”

Despite the stale humor, the class of 2014 and University administration apparently took Nordenberg’s advice to heart: On Thursday, at least 2,496 students again packed the Pete in an attempt to break a Guinness World Record.

The new students spelled out “P-I-T-T” with colored flashlights, likely breaking the record for “The World’s Largest Torchlight (Flashlight) Logo/Image Formed by People.” Guinness Book of World Records representatives must confirm the record before it is official.

Timers were on hand and video was taken of the 10-minute event, with newscasters Kelly Frey and Scott Stiller of WTAE-TV acting as official witnesses.

The previous record was set by Full Sail University in Winter Park, Fla., in January, when 528 students held flashlights.

After the attempt to break the record, Beeson and other speakers discussed ways to start a successful academic journey at Pitt, and by the end of orientation week, the University’s newest members were ready for the start of classes.

News Editor Michael Macagnone contributed to this report.