Did you know that the success or failure of new students on campus lies in the hands of your Orientation Leaders? It’s true. And how they are prepared for their responsibilities will determine if those new students are successful during their collegiate career. When I arrived on campus, my college orientation consisted of getting handed a Student Handbook with an envelope of coupons from local vendors and about a 30-minute session of going around a circle with 10 new students talking about ourselves. “Assessment” was our ‘orientation leader’ asking us if we met any new people. He was no more equipped to help me succeed as a student than I was as a timid first-year. The training that you provide for your Orientation Leaders needs to be intentional. It should allow them to … [Read more...]

I remember my new student orientation program as though it were yesterday (it wasn’t). All of the incoming freshmen—yes, once upon a time, new students were called freshmen (not First Years, New Students, Post-Secondary Initiates, etc)—gathered in Albee Hall on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. We were given some basic rules and “do nots” of the university and then were organized into groups of ten with an experienced student -- I don’t think he was even called Orientation Leader-- who had us sit in a circle outside on the grass. He prompted us to introduce ourselves to each other, with our name, hometown, major, and, I think, the number of pets we grew up with. We then adjourned to the student activities fair with dunk tanks, ball toss, and other carnival … [Read more...]

I was facilitating a full-day orientation leader training recently and an orientation leader asked me how to get a group’s focus back without yelling at them. That is an excellent question and one that comes into play often- whether you’re doing an icebreaker with 500 new students or you’re running a committee meeting of 8. The worst thing one can do is yell at them to, “Be quiet!” “Stop talking!” or even “SHUT UP!” It’s hard to believe but I’ve heard the latter said by experienced people. Not only is it demeaning, but it’s disrespectful. What you want to avoid is “teacher mode.” This is the stereotypical high school teacher who uses yelling and intimidation as a way to maintain order in the classroom. People have had enough of that in their lifetime and if … [Read more...]