Dear Parents,
The campus has come alive with students this past week. On Friday, August 23, we had the New Student Convocation (NSC) at the football stadium. This year we combined it with the freshman tunnel walk. It is great to see about 4,000 students run through the tunnel. This year we asked them to form a human 'N' in the middle of the field. The Convocation was followed by a pep rally and then activities at the Coliseum. The next day (Saturday) at about noon approximately 1,000 sorority women gathered in front of the Nebraska City Union to celebrate their acceptance into a sorority. I was reminded how much noise 1,000 18-year-old women can make.
On Saturday night we hosted a "Party at the Union" with games and entertainment for our students. This culminated with our feeding pancakes to about 2,500 students at midnight. We concluded our weekend activities with the Sunday evening "Street Fair" where we provided hot dogs and other vendors provided pizza, tacos and other free goodies. It is estimated that 10,000 students attended this fair.
Monday was the first day of classes and a time for the students to turn their focus to classes and their academic pursuits.
We are off to a very good start this year. Our freshmen class looks to be one of the largest in recent history. While opening a new residence hall, which accommodates about 500 students, we still needed to postpone the closing of our older residence halls to accommodate student demand for on-campus housing.
We are also adding additional programming to keep students on campus at night engaged in fun, alcohol-free activities. Modeled after our "NightLife" program which is primarily focused on Thursday night activities, we have begun adding programs for Friday night.
In addition to opening the new residence hall, "University Suites", we also continue to work on the East Campus Recreation facility which our students voted to support about two years ago. We are also doing some remodeling of the city student union to make it more attractive and comfortable for our students.
As I finish this piece, I realize I am locked in my office, and I have a need to be where the students are, so I am off to the student union. . .
More details at: http://go.unl.edu/d7d