On Tuesday, September 2, over 60 RPI faculty and staff from multiple departments took part in the first annual “Opening Doors” initiative. With the slogan “Linking Living and Learning,” the program was designed to ease and assist the new freshman class with the transition to living in a residence hall, and give them an opportunity to meet members of the RPI community.
“It was a ball,” said Pete Snyder, director of Residence Life. “Everyone was really excited. Everyone had at least one student they wanted to go back to talk to.”
The program was started as a response to nationwide research that showed that the first two weeks are “a period of turmoil for many of our freshmen,” according to a Residence Life document on the program. Many are away from home and/or sharing a room for the first time, and “struggling with new challenges, both academic and personal.”
“Some of the teams did discover students who are having a tough transition,” said Snyder, “and they’ll be following back up with them to make sure everything’s all right and they’ve learned some of the skills they need to succeed. On a personal note, that made it really worthwhile.”
For two hours volunteers including the provost, vice provost, and academic deans went around knocking on doors in the Freshmen Hill residence halls, as well as in BARH and the Quad. Every room that housed freshmen had its door knocked on by one of the 33 teams. One group also visited the Commons to meet students who were eating during the program. In all, 620 of the 1356 freshmen were greeted by faculty and staff and in the process signed up for a drawing for a $100 gift certificate to Crossgates Mall.
The teams also carried with them forms to write down questions that the students had that they could not answer. The teams collected 78 questions across a broad range of topics, including maintenance issues and how to contact academic advisors. The questions have been sorted and forwarded to the appropriate departments for answering.
Barbara Dean, executive secretary for student life, was one of the volunteers. “It was a really great time,” she said. “I found most of them enjoying their first two weeks, but worried about how to balance their studying, class, and social schedule.” Dean said one student invited her to sit down and have a soda with him, something that surprised and pleased her. “I’d really like to do it again, maybe in about five or six weeks when they start having their first really big tests,” she said.
“The students absolutely loved it that random professors and administrators were knocking on their doors,” said Grand Marshal Mike Borzumate, who also participated in the program.
As far as doing it again in a few weeks, Snyder said, it was under consideration but that there is “a fine line between making contact and pestering.”
Volunteers have already begun brainstorming how to make the program better. Snyder thinks word of the program will spread by next year, and more volunteers will want to sign up. Some have expressed interest in doing an Opening Doors in the upper-class areas.
