WOW leaders met their WOWies a few days earlier during move-in week this year, which may have contributed to the decline in arrests and citations during move-in week, University Police Department Chief George Hughes said.
Brooke Sperbeck
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Week of Welcome underwent many changes this year, including an earlier kickoff and more activities in the beginning of the week, Scott Kjorlien, a WOW Executive Board member, said.
In previous years, students began move-in week with Fall Launch and University Housing programs before meeting their WOW groups a few days later at a rally in Mott Athletics Center, Kjorlien said.
“All of these aspects of campus are directly involved with new students, but they’d been all dealing with it in separate ways,” Kjorlien said. “So we tried to collaborate and bring them all together.”
This year, Orientation Programs partnered with the athletic department, University Housing, Associated Students, Inc. President Jason Colombini and Cal Poly President Jeffrey Armstrong to host a joint welcome rally for both WOWies and their parents on move-in night, Kjorlien said. This collective effort created the atmosphere of a collaborative “campus-wide welcome,” he said.
“You felt part of a large university,” Kjorlien said. “You felt like this university is huge, but there’s a place for you.”
Students were able to meet their WOW groups — which averaged approximately 20 students — after the rally, something not traditionally done on move-in night, Jason Mockford, Orientation Programs coordinator, said. This helped students form connections earlier, which may have encouraged them to stay on campus rather than venture off to parties.
“Getting into groups right away really helped,” Mockford said. “Once you’re in that group, those are the people you want to get to know, so that’s huge.”
Because WOW started earlier, there were more planned activities and less down-time during the first few days on campus for freshmen, said Andrene Kaiwi-Lenting, assistant director of Student Life and Leadership and Orientation Programs coordinator.
“I think when they’re not set in a set of structured activities and students are given the choice of, ‘Okay, what am I going to do tonight?’ we may find more people out in the neighborhoods,” Kaiwi-Lenting said. “This way, I think, we alleviated that.”
One new on-campus activity included an academic style conference entitled “The Mustang Way to Success,” which presented various forums on “useful, practical” topics such as time management skills, classroom etiquette, changing majors and learning style, Mockford said.
“That was really a great success,” Kaiwi-Lenting said. “I think that students got to do a lot of exploration from the academic side.”
Other new on-campus activities included things like paintballing near Poly Canyon Village with ROTC, and a program called “Gay, Straight or Taken” presented by the Pride Center, Kjorlien said. Older favorites like the hypnotist performance, the dance and a concert — something that hasn’t happened the past few years — were brought back to WOW as well, he said.
University Police Department (UPD) Chief George Hughes said more on-campus activities like these are possible reasons for the decline in arrests and citations during move-in week.
“We had much more on-campus activities for students throughout this move-in period,” Hughes said, “so we had them on campus very busy with various activities later into the evening.”
Another possible reason for less criminal activity in the surrounding neighborhoods was the “heavy campaign” by UPD and the San Luis Obispo Police Department to increase enforcement and spread awareness about higher fines during move-in week, Hughes said.
These actions may have discouraged nightlife activity and contributed to more students staying on campus for WOW activities, Mockford said.
“Even the ones who did wander off campus to parties and things like that, they didn’t really find what they were looking for as much,” Mockford said.
Civil engineering junior Alfredo Huerta, a WOW leader in both 2012 and 2013, said he didn’t notice a significant difference in participation among his WOW group this year. Most of his WOWies came to daytime events, but attendance dropped to around 12 or 13 each night, he said.
“You always have those few students that will go out, and then maybe the next day they’ll even get other people in the group to go out,” he said.
Though Huerta and his co-leader didn’t specifically forbid WOWies from leaving, they offered words of advice.
“We kind of just said, ‘Yeah, there’s parties out there and people will be going out, but we want you to stay,’” Huerta said. “Kind of just telling them, ‘We planned this for you, and you’ll have fun if you stay with the group.’”
Mockford said a stricter evaluation process and higher GPA requirements were implemented this year to ensure quality WOW leaders were selected. This effort resulted in the hiring of “phenomenal” individuals who were successful at keeping the WOWies on campus, Kjorlien said.
“We were able to have individuals who could engage these new students and that could keep them later,” Kjorlien said. “Because it comes down to if they like their leaders, they’re going to stay.”