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First-year students at the University of Maine welcomed family and friends for a weekend of activities from Sept. 14 to 16.
First Year Family Day is only two years old, but it is already a success. In the past, it was called Family and Friends Weekend, and was a campus-wide event for all students. According to Barbara Smith, the Staff Associate for Campus Events and Activities, the event was unofficially changed to be the third part of orientation primarily for first-years after summer orientation and the Maine Hello weekend. Smith, who also organizes Maine Hello, said that Family Day is designed as a transition to help families feel connected to the campus. The events are designed for parents and students to attend together.
The weekend includes events all over campus put on by the Division of Student Affairs and sponsored by the Milford Motel and the UMaine bookstore. The logo for the weekend was designed by Bob Potts from the Alumni Association. Check-in went on all weekend, and according to statistics from last year, about 250 parents registered. Ventriloquist Lynn Trefzger was scheduled to perform on Friday night, but the performance was changed to Saturday at 9 p.m.. Many of the events were designed to be family-friendly and for all ages. Saturday kicked off at 10 a.m. with Brunch with the Deans in the Memorial Union, where Dean Dana mingled among the tables and spoke with parents and students.
Open house for the Alcohol and Drug Education Programs, Connections Program and the Career Center followed, where parents and students could meet the staff and ask questions.
Informational sessions for parents and students were held in the Union to answer any questions parents or students might have. A preview of the events that the First Year Residential Experience (FYRE) will put on was hosted by Residence Life and Connections Program staff. The FYRE Olympics were postponed due to the rain. The residence halls will form teams and compete against each other in such events as Male-Female Pair Speed Shaving, Human Pyramid and Cardboard Fort Building.
The Alumni Association held a Legacy Reception and Ice Cream Social for those students and their alumni family members; the first 200 students got a free T-shirt. The new Student Recreation Center was open all weekend and free for those who were accompanied by a UMaine student.
The final event of the weekend was a karaoke night put on by student organizations in the Bear’s Den.
“We had the largest class I’ve ever seen in my life.” Smith said. Formerly Family and Friends Weekend, it was decided that many of the student organizations that it was meant to highlight didn’t have enough time to get organized, so it was moved to the spring semester. It was also decided that it wasn’t as important for the upper class students to have the event, so they decided to focus more on the freshman class. What was more important was to create a day when parents could come for the day and see the campus through the eyes of their student, according to Smith.
For parents, it was also one of the first times to see their student since they moved in two weeks ago. “It helped me to know that in two weeks I would see him when I dropped him off,” said Karen Valliere, whose son Jeff is a first-year student.
When asked what she thought about FYRE, Patty McLaughlin said that so far her daughter Kate seems happy and that she has lots of opportunities. Cyndi Smith also thought that FYRE was a good idea but added that her son Justin was the one who had to participate in it. About the events themselves, she said that she had wanted to attend, but Justin had to work.
Many of the parents live far away, and weren’t able to make it to the earlier activities. Usually there are athletic events that the families can attend, but this year there were no home games. Smith said that she had been getting calls all week from parents wanting information, and she had even heard from some grandparents who wanted to come. She said that many people who came up didn’t register, so they really don’t know how many people attended.
The weekend is filled with events, but they left time slots open so that parents could take their students shopping and get last-minute supplies, according to Smith. Many parents just came to see their student and didn’t participate in many of the activities. “We did our own private tour,” Cyndi Smith said.
Bangor Daily News