Cooperpalooza among new programs added to signature introductory lineup
This year’s Carolina Welcome Week is packed with more events, more free food and more academic emphasis than previous years.
This year, 151 events are part of Carolina Welcome Week, beginning Friday, Aug. 17, and ending Sunday, Aug. 26. That’s 12 more than last year, according to Russell House Director Kim McMahon.
“We had a stronger invitation to sponsor last year, and I think folks are better understanding how they can use Carolina Welcome as a way to start to get their name out there for the services or programs that they offer,” McMahon said.
With a fuller schedule, the Carolina Welcome Week’s new website features a search engine tool which allows students browse events by type. They range from signature academic and social events, such as First-Year Reading Experience and First Night Carolina, to niche programming for transfer students. So far, the Welcome Week site lists at least 37 events as academic, 87 as social, 67 as organization recruitment and 35 as religious.
And in the spirit of appealing to students’ stomachs and wallets, at least 65 events are to have free food and 61 will include giveaways.
McMahon added that students will see a greater variety of academic welcome events, in addition traditional social highlights, such as Carolina After Dark and Bustle at the Russell.
“We’ve had a renewed focus on the academic experience of Carolina Welcome,” McMahon said. “Part of Carolina Welcome is to prepare students academically for the first day of class.”
While the New Student Convocation and First-Year Reading Experience have always been signature academic events, this year’s Welcome Week schedule will tack on a “USC Connect Fair” — part of the university’s effort to streamline students’ out-of-classroom experiences — and an “I Can Succeed” series hosted by the Student Success Center, where instructors and upperclassmen peer leaders give advice to first-year students on how to pass first-year English, math, Spanish and chemistry classes.
Also among this year’s new programs is the Thomas Cooper Library’s Cooperpalooza on Sunday, Aug. 19. Library Director of Communications Becky Gettys said this is the first year Thomas Cooper is hosting a Welcome Week event in addition to their regular library tours. The evening will be laid out as a large-scale matching game, with several stations at which students will fill out a word bank.
“We’re really excited to have an opportunity to have a lot of freshmen come and see the library, see that this is a welcoming place and find out what we do here,” Gettys said.
Student Government Chief of Staff Trenton Smith, a second-year political science and economics student, says that Welcome Week is also a critical time for campus organizations to recruit students. He has been helping SG plan their Greene Street table for Welcome Week.
“Even though we have student organization space online, new students always get a better feel of what the organization actually is by talking to someone,” Smith said.