That’s where the IU Guides come in.
Clad in red, standing behind a long table, Matt Razek and Laura Slabaugh manned an IU Guides station outside the Indiana Memorial Union and Ernie Pyle Hall.
“I was an orientation leader, and our program kind of continues into Welcome Week and beyond,” Slabaugh, a sophomore studying marketing and French, said Monday.
Orientation leaders, he added, are encouraged to remain involved in campus life after the school year ?begins.
Razek, a second-year graduate student studying higher education and student affairs, works as a graduate supervisor in Teter Quad.
This year was both of their first years as guides.
After less than an hour at their station, Razek said they saw 20 to 30 students.
“This is only my second year here, and I didn’t realize how many people would take advantage of it,” he said.
Slabaugh said working as a guide gives her an ego boost by showing just how well she knows the campus.
IU Guides are volunteers and work one-hour shifts.
Razek said apart from orientation leaders and other students working in residence life, he’s seen alumni and faculty working as guides.
Both guides said they enjoyed their shifts.
“I love answering questions,” Razek said.
Aside from directions, students asked Razek and Slabaugh about how to put money on Campus Access cards and where to find the closest food spot on campus purchasable with meal points.
While these questions aren’t for particular directions, both Slabaugh and Razek said most students they encounter are inquiring as to where a campus building is located.
“I’ve had Sycamore more than any other building and Rawles because everyone has finite and calculus today,” Slabaugh said.
