Columns

GUEST ROOM | Be Curious, Stay Eager

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Orientation week at Cornell is always fun. It can be FUN. “FUN.” Funnnnnn. Or just fun, which comes out sounding a lot closer to, “fine,” than “fun.” This year, however, was the most FUN. As a junior, two orientation weeks have come and gone for me.

Columns

MORADI | You Don’t Have To Like It Here

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Somehow, every freshman is simultaneously horny and anxious and tired and excited and sweaty during O-week. Part of my on-campus job involves trying to parse through these feelings with first-year students, assuaging their fears and elevating their excitement. I generally try to keep things positive. I tell them how I love the Ithaca Farmers Market, Manndible oatmeal chocolate chip walnut cookies and running through Forest Home Drive. I slipped up last year when I was on a student panel for Cornell Days and a really perceptive prefrosh asked what I didn’t like about Cornell.

Columns

GROSKAUFMANIS | More Than Orientation

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When I was a freshman, every reputable national newspaper had a 40 year-old writing about how to “do college” correctly and effectively. And while crumbs of their advice were useful, I also felt like the prescriptions for how to act and perform were more stressful than anything else.

Student Assembly

First-Year Students Raise Concerns About Orientation Events at Student Assembly Meeting

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Members of the Cornell Orientation Steering Committee and Student Assembly addressed concerns from first year students at a forum hosted during Thursday’s Student Assembly meeting at Robert Purcell Community Center. After concluding the S.A. general meeting, President Jordan Berger ’17 opened the forum by asking members of the community — especially first-year students — to come forward and share what they felt was missing from their transition to Cornell. OSC co-chair Ethan Kramer ’17 — along with OSC members Finn McFarland ’18 and Emily Hunsinger ’18 — fielded questions from the community. After a few minutes of discussion, ILR student Joseph Anderson ’20 sparked a long conversation on the required orientation events Tapestry and Speak About It by recalling a hostile exchange between a student moderator and an audience member during a Tapestry question and answer session. “At least in [my Tapestry event], it got very hostile between the student moderator and the students who were questioning,” Anderson said.

Uncategorized

Orientation ’09 Eases Transition to Cornell

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One of the main challenges for each Orientation Steering Committee is putting a new spin on the annual event.
According to Jack Cao ’10, one of the members on the OSC, this year the committee is trying to give the orientation theme a more prominent role than previous years’ themes.
“What makes 2009 unique is the emphasis on integration,” Cao said. “The theme of technology is meant as a metaphor for the OSC’s attempt to get the new freshmen integrated and connected to Cornell.”