Living off campus provides a host of new challenges for students used to the comforts and added security of on-campus life. Rushing to the front of ICC Auditorium to pick up forms before 300 other students crush you should not be among those challenges. Unfortunately, anyone who attended last week’s off-campus housing orientations faced just that problem, as well as a number of other ill-considered hassles.
The university has a responsibility to take care of its students, and any attempt to inform students about the dangers they face and the ways to deal with problems is welcome, especially with the increased emphasis on fire safety after last year’s townhouse fire that caused the death of Georgetown senior Daniel Rigby.
Even more welcome would be a streamlined method of transferring important information from the administration to the students. Upperclassmen have enough on their plates without giving up more than an hour to sit restlessly through repetitive lectures on locking doors and taking out the trash. On top of that, the chaotic atmosphere at these meetings diminished the speakers’ ability to get across their message and promoted student apathy. The concluding melee, as students rushed the stage to get hold of necessary paperwork, only added to the irritation everyone felt.
Not to mention the make-up off-campus orientation held on Wednesday in the Leavey Program Room, another example of a disorganized and chaotic meeting. Students overflowed into the outside hallway, straining to hear information that they were required to listen to, at the risk of facing a blocked pre-registration for the spring 2006 semester.
If the administration wants students to better understand the responsibilities of off-campus life, they should seek a more efficient way to get points across. Georgetown takes its honor-code policy seriously and thus requires students to take a tutorial on “scholarly research and academic integrity.” Could the university set up a similar type of program in which students log on and learn about the particulars of off-campus life without contending with the din of hundreds of their disgruntled peers? It would cut down on the hassle of bringing together so many students and entertaining them for an hour, and would also ensure that students pay greater attention to the information presented to them.
The door prizes and water bottles that were distributed at the meetings were thoughtful touches, but students would probably forgo these luxuries for an extra hour of personal time and a little less stress. One of the most rewarding facets of off-campus life is the sense of greater freedom and personal responsibility. Why shouldn’t the university respect that freedom and let students take a flexible online orientation instead of forcing them to tread back to campus to sit through a disorganized assembly? Students living off campus have enough to deal with at home; the university should not make student safety just another chore.