Barely Moving

The road to freedom was clogged Wednesday as incoming freshmen funneled down into one lane on Highway 37 -- a closure which turned out to be an effective filtration system into IU.\n"Traffic just stopped for 15 minutes," said freshman parent, Rick Matillo. "It took us 45 minutes to really get moving but once we cleared Martinsville, it was a cakewalk."\nOnce families made it onto campus, the IU Police Department directed their cars, and the residence staff directed their sanity.\nElizabeth Smiltneck, graduate student supervisor for Collins Living-Learning Center, said the orientation and Residential Programs staffs were there mainly for reference and move-in assistance.\nJunior Bobby Kline, orientation staff member, said he worked last year's move-in and has noticed a definite improvement.\n"It seems like it's a lot more organized and less chaotic," Kline said. "There were enormous lines last year and it seems much more calm this year." \nFreshman parent Harold Lebwohl, who had already moved his daughter in, sat on the wall outside Foster-Harper Quad and surveyed the most recent arrivals. \nLebwohl -- an East-coaster -- commented on the tendency of Midwesterners to overreact to a move-in situation that isn't half as bad as moving into a city college.\n"I'm just hysterical watching parents and students freak out about moving in," Lebwohl said. "I never thought I'd see the day when a father would carry a fridge on his back all by himself -- it's a great scene." \nOther more frequently-occurring scenes around campus included fathers in khaki shorts and socks and sandals, women in denim, families keeping tabs on each other with cell phones, dumpsters piled twice as high as a person, makeshift wedges propping open dorm entrances, push carts with the tinny whining of an un-greased wheel, more minivans than a soccer tournament and SUV's that were finally put to use -- thumping over curbs and dipping into the wealth of potholes. \nThere were also many parents who spent quality time on the curbs and sidewalks, babysitting their children's belongings while they checked in and got their room key.\nFire lanes were used as loading zones, where families were instructed to unload their cars expeditiously then go to a parking lot farther from the dorms. \nFor the first and potentially last time, people commented that Parking Operations needed to be stricter on parking violators.\nFreshman parent Grace Worley said there should be a "parking Gestapo" in charge of removing empty vehicles taking up valuable space in front of the dorms.\nBecause it's futile to regulate parking during move-in, the Residential Program Services and "Gestapo" are both more lenient with "resourceful" parking decisions.\nFreshman Zac Elsts got to pass all the parking problems as he walked to Teter Quad. Elsts said he already had everything in his dorm after taking his buddy's advice to pay $16 for early move-in.\n"(Early move-in) was great," Elsts said. "I'm still as excited about being here today as yesterday, but I'm kinda' bored. I'm just waiting for people to show up."\nAnother advocate for early move-in was Movin U' -- a private company based in Chicago, Ill. that is hired to move and unload student belongings. \nAdam Comitor, an employee with the company, said additional chaos could be avoided if the University would allow them in a day early so their 8-by-14 foot moving trucks wouldn't block everyone else.\nRegardless of hold-ups and a draining move-in process, some students said they were still excited to finally be at IU.\n"I'm very excited," freshman Laura Korbecki said. "I'm not nervous yet. I already met my roommate and she seems pretty normal, so that's always good."\nFreshman parent David Greenbaum said he was just as excited about moving his only child, Julie, to college as she was about coming. \n"I'm sad, but I'm really happy she's starting a new phase of her life," Greenbaum said. "My wife and I don't look at it as losing a child, but as a new adventure for her"