EUGENE, Ore. (KMTR) – One the busiest days of the year on the University of Oregon campus was Thursday as thousands of new college students made the move into campus residence halls.
Nearly 3,000 UO students and their parents showed up for the annual move-in day Thursday, September 20. In all, around 4,200 students will live in the UO's nine residence halls this school year; 1,200 of those students moved in earlier in the week.
With thousands are moving in, the process is much more streamlined these days with the help of a few initiatives the university created two years ago.
One of the most noticeable are the hundreds of student volunteers who now help students move their items inside. Unpack the Quack volunteers are on hand from 8 AM to 5 PM to give families a helping hand and help ease some stress.
"We hope that everybody comes in and has a quick and kind of painless move-in and they get to get started being a Duck,” says Chris Schroeder, an Unpack the Quack volunteer from the Sigma Nu fraternity.
Schroeder and his fraternity brother Peter Nitzo helped moved new Ducks into the Bean Residence Hall on Thursday. Both spent their first year in the residence halls; however, they didn't have the help they are now providing.
“It definitely helps having volunteers here. You can definitely tell Moms are relieved,” says Nitzo.
“I personally moved into Barnhart and had to carry my stuff up six flights of stairs and it just felt like it was too much pressure to meet people,” says Schroeder.
Moving in with the help of her Mom, Caroline Sherratt is one of thousands of freshman living on campus.
“Mainly, I am just really excited; I haven't really been nervous yet,” says Caroline.
A journalism major, she follows in her brother Will's footsteps.
“Looking forward to these next four years because it's going to be really fun,” says Caroline.
Leaving another Duckling behind in Eugene, Caroline's mother Susan says the process has been much smoother this time around.
“I am so impressed as always with the organization at Oregon and the welcoming spirit here . . . what a fabulous place to go to school! I want to be eighteen years old and have this experience!” says Susan Sherratt.
To make traffic run more smoothly as well, the UO now moves in students to the residence halls through a staggered check-in time based on zip codes. The further out someone lives, the sooner they get to move in.
