January 3rd, 2019 started out cold, windy and grey – not the best welcome to the new year. That did not deter the students at MUN, though. It was hard to miss the bright red and turquoise shirts emblazoned with the words “Ask Me” that the volunteers had donned, as they went about setting up for the events that were going to take place throughout the day. While the wind blustered outside, volunteers were welcoming the new students with smiles and Campus tours.
Since the Winter semester at MUN isn’t usually as busy as the Fall semester, students were guided to the Student Experience Office (UC 3005). There, Michael Mackey, the Operation Lead who was in charge of overseeing all the campus tours, along with a handful of other volunteers, allocated tour groups.
The tours had been planned beforehand. Therefore, once a volunteer had a certain number of people in their group, they took them to all the major buildings across campus, including (but not limited to) the Engineering building, the Science building, the Arts building, the Library, the Bruneau Centre, etc. The tours did not only involve showing students the campus and how to not get lost within five minutes of stepping foot at MUN, but they also included facts and helpful tips about where to find Help Centres, other services and accommodations available at the university, and even advice on how to deal with certain personal experiences. All this myriad of information was provided in an attempt to make the students feel less anxious about adjusting to the completely new environment of college life whilst simultaneously make the sprawling campus seem a little less intimidating.
Tours were taking place from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., with the flow of confused and excited students slowing down to a trickle roughly around lunchtime. From then on, the tours became more and more personalized as individual students who had missed the morning rush came to the SEO with multitudes of questions. As a volunteer myself, I was able to take one of the new graduate students on a personalized tour to help him find his classroom, his professor’s office, the Department of Gender Studies as well as his student ID, as we consulted his checklist of things to do while at MUN.
Overall, despite the daunting weather outside, it seemed that many of the students who had showed up for the Welcome Week Campus Tours were instilled with more confidence, happiness and a sense of belonging than when they had arrived.
Reporter: Sanjna Joshi
