Snacks steal spotlight

If you cater, they will come. Food is a classic technique used by any and all organizations, speakers or departments at IU to attract college students. The Welcome Week programs last week were only acting according to this well-known fact. But tasty snacks stole the spotlight from the valuable information offered during Welcome Week.\nThe Office of Orientation Programs hosts CultureFest every year as a way to expose students, especially freshmen, to cultural, ethnic and religious communities on campus. The audience for CultureFest speaker Kevin Wanzer filled the IU Auditorium to the brim last Thursday. But most who arrived after the doors closed waited impatiently for food to be served instead of visiting the booths where representatives were stationed with information on a variety of cultural programs. \nFew Welcome Week events did not include a tasty snack. Once lured into an assembly, speech or festival with promises of food and prizes, many freshmenleft with their hunger satisfied, but with no greater recognition of what is in many ways a diverse and generous campus.\nMore than one freshman boasted success to this columnist in their personal Welcome Week ambition: to get through the week paying for as few meals as possible.\nHow can Welcome Week avoid becoming a series of buffets for students stress-eating their way to the start of classes? \nA significant amount of University money and student elbow-grease converge in the massive August effort to make every freshman feel welcome at IU. At the same time, Welcome Week costs are probably only a drop in the bucket of IUB's unrestricted $650 million budget.\nIf IU is willing to foot the bill, and if catering keeps the students coming, by all means keep serving delicious food at Welcome Week events. But let us also ensure that Welcome Week events not only satisfy the stomach, but also communicate information suited to the needs and interests of incoming students.\nBetter design for Culturefest booths placing information in greater prominence than snacks, or directing students toward information before reaching the food would encourage students to more seriously consider the sponsor organization before they chow down. \nWelcoming new students is a responsibility every institute of higher education should take seriously. The students' first week is the institution's first opportunity to wow students and their families - to motivate them to become involved in the University. Yet the Office of Orientation conducts no yearly survey to gauge the interest level in and perceived relevance of current Welcome Week activities.\nThe Office accepts unstructured feedback in the form of e-mail (orient@indiana.edu) and is considering conducting a survey this fall. If such a survey is indeed realized, we should applaud the Office for realizing the importance of reevaluating the effectiveness of this year's Welcome Week events. It would be about time. \nWhen Welcome Week programs served copious amounts of food, students attended in droves. But quantity of attendees does not guarantee a quality event. The Office of Orientation must make a concentrated effort to find out what wisdom students take away from Welcome Week events -- only then can it ensure future Welcome Weeks not only dish out a square meal, but a balanced perspective of IU as a dynamic academic community.