Author: Hillary Holmes
On Aug. 29th, nearly 600 first-year students were officially welcomed to Occidental College in Rush Gym, where 58 O-Team leaders in neon orange shirts and foam paws cheered the new students and their families into an assembly led by the administration.
O-Week, or orientation, occurs the week before the rest of the upperclassmen move back and is dedicated to helping the first-years learn everything about living on a college campus. This year’s O-Week theme was “Welcome to Oxyland,” an allusion to “Alice in Wonderland”. O-Week was a new experience for both Oxy’s new president, Jonathan Veitch, and for the largest first-year classes that this college has ever had.
“We had about 100 more incoming students this year [. . .] so we definitely had to make changes, like moving events to bigger buildings,” said the Director of the Office of Student Life Tamara Rice. “For example, we used Rush Gym for the first time.” Rice worked with, Assistant Director for New Student Programs, Karina Viaud, to ensure that O-Week would run smoothly, especially with such a large class.
Although Rice and Viaud planned many of the the administrative details of O-Week, much of the preparation was also done by the O-Team.
This year’s O-Coordinator, Chris Loomis (senior), worked with Viaud throughout the summer to organize O-Groups. The O-Core consisted of eight Oxy students who arrived two weeks before O-Week and were responsible for arranging specific events. The 50 O-Team leaders arrived one week before orientation to be trained before working with the first-year students in their O-Groups.
“We do not charge a fee for orientation as some other schools do.” said Rice. This means that a large part of O-Week depends on the volunteer work of the O-Team. “O-Team is great!” said Rice. Rice credited the work of the O-Team as the reason that O-Week remained effective in the face of such a large group of incoming students.
On Saturday, after the “Oxyland Game Show,” a presentation based on Occidental’s history, the O-Team separated all members of the first-year class into O-Groups. An O-Week tradition, O-Groups provide the new students an opportunity to meet some of their fellow classmates while gaining advice from an older Oxy student. According to Rice, the size of the incoming class changed the composition of O-Groups, with each including 12 to 13 students instead of the normal ten.
The activities planned by the O-Team varied greatly, with numerous planned assemblies and events on-campus, as well as small trips to local hot spots in the surrounding area. The first day of orientation ended with a new student dinner, as well as a carnival complete with root beer floats and a bungee run. Sunday evening featured the Embracing Differences event and a square dance.
“I thought that the diversity activity was really interesting because it showed what we have in common,” said Arielle Tinero (first-year).
“My favorite part of O-Week was the hoe down because there was free ice cream and I learned some new dance moves,” said Charlotte Krovoza (first-year).
The final event of O-Week was Convocation where all of Occidental’s newest students lined up in black robes and marched into Thorne Hall to the beat of Taiko Drums, following a procession of the college’s professors. The students were then addressed by a number of various school officials, including President Veitch, who gave a compelling speech about the importance of reading.
“We strive for all new students and families to feel welcomed and excited to be part of the Oxy community- no matter how crazy they may initially perceive us,” said O-Core organizer Karla Garcia (junior), when asked what she considered the purpose of O-Week to be.
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