IU Guides introduce freshmen to campus on 1st day of classes

Being a freshman in a campus of nearly 40,000 can be a little scary.\nBeing a freshman looking for his or her first class today can be a little daunting.\nBut the Office of Orientation Programs, in conjunction with the Office of the Dean of Faculties, is making the transition from high school or another college just a little easier for the new students who will flood the campus today for their first class with the inaugural year of IU Guides.\n"It's the older, more experienced people introducing the campus they know to the younger, less experi-enced students," said Emily McCallister, graduate assistant for the Office of Orientation Programs.\nNew students should be paying atte-ntion to kiosks all over campus featuring upperclassmen, administration members and faculty and staff wearing crimson shirts which have a compass to symbolize a guide on them, she said.\n"The people who are standing around campus with those shirts will be handing out maps and pointing people in the right direction for their class," McCallister said.\nThe campus guides will be available for the first two days of classes from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.\nMelanie Payne, associate director of orientation programs, said orientation can also can help some lost faces.\n"This is something where I expect a lot of friendly faces to be around to help make sure people get to their classes," Payne said.\nA reason they created the program was to help extend orientation into the school year instead of just in the summer, McCallister said.\n"This is just one of our last phases to welcome them to their new home," she said.\nWith Monday being the opening day of classes and many students wondering where to go, IU guides, like senior Will Rodgers, will offer some hope.\n"Tomorrow is going to be a great day," he said Sunday. "People will see familiar faces, get reconnected or connect to others for the first time. This will help to further them into their studies and find people who can help them."\nA goal for the IU Guides program is to get the new students thinking this is a home for them, not a place where they just have to go to school and have no fun.\n"The IU Guide program is unique that is going to help turn what can be a rather large and intimidating campus into a home away from home or a second home for a lot of students across campus," Rodgers said.\nThe program is expected to become a tradition at IU, and organizers expect it to draw a lot of attention from the new students.\n"I expect this to become a tradition and be the first out of many years we do this," Payne said. "We've had a lot of freshmen come to us and say, 'Thank you so much, we are so glad you are doing this for us."