Campus welcomes first-years with concerts, picnics

It took all summer to make a welcome mat that 2,600 feet couldfit onto. The 2003 version of Week of Welcome kicks off Sundaymorning, when 1,300 first-year students will make their way ontocampus. With events running through Wednesday, WOW leaders anddirectors hope to give the students a warm reception into theMustang family.

Residence halls open for move-in Sunday morning and WOW leaderswill be there to lend a hand in the process.

This year’s Week of Welcome staff includes four studentdirectors, juniors Will Whited, Maya Mahoney and Emily Jordan andsenior Lauren Roberson.

The staff spent the last academic year recruiting, interviewingand selecting 75 WOW leaders and planning activities to make thefirst few days on campus memorable.

“We looked at last year’s program to see what workedand what didn’t,” Roberson said. “We tried toimprove on WOW and make it as strong as possible.”

The result is a slate of events that should immediately injectenergy into the campus community.

“We’ve changed it up completely,” Whited said.”We’ve got more night activities and more fun things todo.”

Upperclassmen have a wide range of opinions about their WOWexperiences.

Some thought there were too many activities.

Some thought that there weren’t enough. The challenge thatthe WOW team faced was to find a balance between the two.

“We decided to cut back on the amount of programming andfocus on the content of the ones we have,” Jordan said.”With fewer programs, you can get more excited about the onesthere are.”

The first large-scale event is the Opening Day Picnic south ofClements Hall.

There will be food, and the entertainment for the evening willbe J.W. Marshall and Robby Halladay. After the picnic, WOW leaderswill “round-up” their groups into various residencehalls before heading into Moody Coliseum where head football coachPhil Bennett will be the opening act for local rock band PoisonCherry.

Bennett won’t be performing, but his address to thestudent body is the first step in building “SMU Spirit: TheReal Thing,” for which the program is titled.

Monday evening features the campus’ first Casino Night.Tuesday, arguably the busiest day of WOW, features “Live fromSMU: It’s Saturday Night on Tuesday Morning,” where 15WOW leaders will perform skits that relate to college life and howto live it successfully.

An afternoon road trip to Studio Movie Grill providesfirst-years with another opportunity to see the life that existsbeyond the SMU campus. The day concludes with performing hypnotistChuck Milligan, an act where dazed students end up doing zanythings at Milligan’s command.

WOW comes to an official and symbolic end when the entire classof 2007 takes part in the traditional Rotunda Passage andConvocation.

A summer of work for the Office of New Student Programs onbehalf of the entire campus community culminates in the comingweek. With the new programs and revived traditional activities,WOW’s overall mission appears well within reach.

“We hope that the incoming students really feelconnected,” Mahoney said, “to the university, to thepeople and to the community.”�