Student orientation
These programs can range from voluntary community building activities (frosh week) to mandatory credit-based courses designed to support students academically, socially, and emotionally.
Orientation programming, regardless of length or format, aims to introduce students to both the academic and social aspects of an institution as they transition from high school.
[10] For institutions that have enhanced their orientations to serve as a comprehensive transition program, learning outcomes are developed to assess success.
The impact of COVID-19 will need to be addressed when considering orientation programs to support the transition for students moving from high school to post-secondary institutions.
In Sweden, it is known as nollning (from nolla, 'zero', in this case meaning the students have not earned any credit points yet) or inspark (being 'kicked in' to university life).
[19] Specifically, between the 1960s and 1970s, deans acting in the role in loco parentis, were focused on orientation, transition and retention programs that soon became fundamental to higher education institutions.
Legislation in different North American states and provinces has led to programming that addresses consent, gendered violence, and the introduction of the campus sexual assault policy.
A major event for the week is the O-Ball (live entertainment and licensed areas) which takes place in the Cloisters (Union House).
When the students arrive all tutor groups welcome the ruslings with the infamous Marbjergmark show – usually a display of wacky sketches such as naked people playing chess, smashing rotten eggs at bystanders or themselves or men chasing midgets with a butcher's knife (to name a few examples).
During the two-week period the tutor group teach and introduce the new students to life on campus, both the social and educational aspects.
The tutors uphold a strict set of rules to maintain a safe and pleasant tutorship to prevent harmful and humiliating hazing rituals.
Activities for new students may include "orienteering", pub crawls, sporting events, swimming in fountains or other forms of "baptism", sitsit parties and saunas, often done wearing homemade fancy-dress costumes.
The most basic form of orientation in Indonesia consists of an educational board run and introduction to campus cultural behavior.
[26] What makes orientation in Indonesia (for some universities and schools) distinctive to other countries would arguably be the freshmens' requirement to wear unusual accessories or hairstyles (i.e. freshmen were asked to wear hats made of bird's nests, neckties made of folded paper, military hairstyles for male students or intricate braids for females, and the usage of a sack instead of a rucksack).
Harsh physical punishments were not uncommon during the Suharto era, and mass media continues to report inhumane activities during those orientations that led to a few cases of death.
The reason cited by psychologists is that orientation is often used as a tool of revenge by the board of organizers for what the seniors did to them during their freshman year.
[32] Flat warmings are often held within the time limit to couple the alcohol oriented event with the general party week.
In New Zealand's main university towns such as Dunedin and Palmerston North (where students make up around one fifth of the population) orientation week leads a wide range of events.
At the technical faculties, the people who organize the nollning play roles in a theatrical manner and often wear sunglasses and some form of weird clothes.
[citation needed] For over 50 years, SOTUS – a hazing-based system used for college initiation in Thailand – has been involved in Thai universities.
[This quote needs a citation] Since it was established, this has become a group of people who share their opinions about the SOTUS system based on their experiences.
Live music is also common, as are a number of organized social gatherings especially designed to allow freshers to make new friends and to get to know their course colleagues.
The aim is to lower the rate of sexually transmitted disease and to reduce the level of intoxication commonly witnessed in freshers' week.
Due to the perceived gender exclusiveness of the term, some institutions including the University of North Carolina have adopted first-year student as the preferred nomenclature.
Some programs require their organizers to sign waivers stating they will not be under the influence of any substances over the course of the week as they are responsible for the well-being of the students.
Many colleges encourage parents to come to the first day to help new students move into their dormitory, fill out paper work, and get situated.
Their orientation leader will take them around campus, do activities with them, have discussions with them, help them register for the next semester's classes and make them feel comfortable about coming to school in the fall.
[citation needed] After first-year students have completed some time at their university, they may find that they did not make the right choice, miss being close to home, or simply want to attend a different institution.
This usually includes campus tours, introducing transfer students to their adviser or perhaps a few of their teachers, and filling out paperwork for proper enrollment.
Therefore, their orientation focuses mostly on becoming familiar with the layout and policies of their new institution, providing information about essential campus resources, and getting acquainted with other transfer students so they may make friends at their new university.
