Q. Who are some specific students you have been able to help?
A. It is always rewarding to assist students with special needs, be it someone with a physical disability who requires a wheelchair or maybe someone who has broken her leg playing soccer and is on crutches. We are happy to accommodate them by providing transportation in a golf cart or having an Ignition Leader push them around all day. Things like that are always rewarding.
Q. How will Orientation be different this year?
A. It’s going to be profoundly different, not just because we are hosting it on two different campuses but because we have created more of an engagement model that includes both academic and faculty engagement as well as socially engaging experiences for the incoming students. A lot of research indicates that what truly matters is not whether incoming students hear compelling information about financial aid but, rather, that they connect with faculty, a friend, or a peer group. It is this connection that really makes a difference in whether or not they will succeed. We are excited for this year.
orientation online experience or Web-based experience. A lot of things we’ve traditionally done face-to-face will be introduced to students before they ever get to campus. It will create a little bit more margin on orientation day, and we will not have to cover every single piece of information. Providing too much information at orientation sessions is overwhelming. The more you give students, the less they are able to retain. Therefore, instead of having 10 speakers back-to-back in the morning, we are going to have two panel sessions and an introduction to academic advising. The first panel session is called “Maslow’s panel,” which provides an opportunity for parents and students to discuss those lower order needs of college students (i.e., safety, food, and health). The second panel will be led by two or three faculty members who will answer basic questions about academics during the first year.
They will discuss what life is like in the classroom and what students can expect. It is going to be challenging, but I am excited about this new format. The introduction to academic advising is at the end of the day. We are going to provide students and parents the opportunity to attend the type of presentations given in the past, but those will be offered in breakout sessions so they can choose their adventure. They won’t be able to attend every presentation, but they will be able to attend several, and they can engage online after they leave campus at the end of the day.
Q. What are some major milestones?
A. The first is the establishment of the Orientation Leader program. It’s gone from just an idea to one of the top leadership development programs for students on campus, and departments often seek out our students for things that are not orientation-related. Our Ignition Leader program is one of the things we are excited about. We’re moving into a time where, because we’re the first department to interact with a dual campus model, we really get the chance to set the tone regarding what it means to be a KSU student and an Owl at the New U.
Q. What is your vision for OTP?
A. We are in a “wait and see” period. We’re making a lot of decisions regarding what we think is going to be right for the New U and for our department. I think some of the national trends focus on finding ways to engage students continually and “be in their pocket” via their cell phones. If we want to be relevant and effective, we’ve got to find a way to be accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – before they get to campus, while they’re on campus, while they are sophomores, juniors, and seniors – so I think that’s where Orientation is going. Finding ways to connect students with people who care about them, and matter, to them, will make a difference in their ability to succeed.
Gross and his team are prepared to welcome approximate 8000 incoming students for the Fall 2015 orientations. That number includes an 8 percent increase in the number first-year students compared to the previous year.
We’ve created some space, and we are working with a marketing and branding production company called Between Pixels . We are a launching a preimposed