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Moving to school is an exciting yet stressful time for many individuals. Students, parents, and campus housing professionals all play a crucial role in ensuring a smooth and successful transition. While parents and students undoubtedly have an influence, campus housing professionals can have the most significant impact on moving day.
As professionals specializing in college move-in services, Collegeboxes has had the opportunity to visit numerous campuses and witness countless move-ins. Through our experiences, we have gathered plenty of successful ideas that we are eager to share with you. If you are seeking innovative move-in strategies, here are eight effective methods to assist students as they transition into their new campus residences.
There’s a good chance you already provide some type of move-in resource for students to help them get settled. But if not, it’s something we highly recommend. It could be a welcome packet containing detailed information about moving procedures, essential contacts, campus maps, and tips for settling in. Or it could be online guides, FAQs, and helpful PDFs posted on your website or distributed via QR code that help students prepare for the move. If your campus already provides this service, perhaps it’s time to review your content and determine whether there’s room for improvement.
Many schools utilize orientation programs to help students and parents get comfortable on move-in day. Typical orientations include campus tours to help students familiarize themselves with key locations such as dorms, dining halls, libraries, and health centers. Not only do orientations familiarize students with their surroundings, but they also give students the opportunity to meet other students and start the settling in process.
You can take this a step further by developing some “welcome” events, such an ice cream social, BBQ, or game night to help students acclimate and feel welcome. Be sure to invite the parents and current residents as well. Although this may not directly ease the stress of move-in day, it can help reduce some of the other anxieties students and parents experience during this time and foster a healthier atmosphere for the weeks to come.
One of your primary goals as a housing professional is to not only get students moved in, but to also keep things organized and on schedule. Unfortunately, you can’t be there to lend a helping hand to every family, but you can take steps to make things easier.
Clear, helpful signage is a simple, yet effective way to point people in the right direction and cut down on confusion and congestion. If possible, we also recommend providing loading and unloading assistance, either via volunteers or staff members, to make the process easier on families. Finally, set up information booths to hand out your move-in resources, answer questions, and give directions.
Does your campus have dollies, carts, or any kind of moving equipment readily available? If not, it’s time to acquire some and make sure families know they are available when moving to school. These tools will go a long way toward helping families get their items through the hallways, up the elevators, and into their dorms more efficiently and with less effort.
The fewer students moving in at one time, the less congestion and confusion there will be. Seems simple enough but can be one the more impactful strategies we recommend. If you can, stagger move in times and offer flexibility to accommodate more schedules and reduce traffic jams and overall stress. We also recommend offering early move in. A few days before your official move-in, allow some students to get their things moved to avoid the rush and give them extra time to settle in.
Think about past campus moving days. Were there any specific hang-ups or areas that caused confusion? Try to identify these and other areas that need improvement. Call on your own experiences to improve upon your existing moving strategies and help build new ones. In addition, strategize a way for students to leave feedback so you more easily identify stressors moving forward and make improvements accordingly. This could be as simple as comment cards, or it could involve something more interactive, such digital surveys. This feedback will be vital to enhancing your operation and ensuring future success.
We encourage you to keep your incoming students in the loop as best you can leading up to move-in. Send regular emails or messages with updates and any essential information that they might find useful. This can also be a great time to distribute maps, instructions, rules, or anything else that would be helpful to review before things begin.
Pro tip: campus emergency contacts can come in handy in an unexpected situation. Be sure students are prepared as best as possible for a variety of situations.
Not all moving help needs to come from you and/or campus staff. There are additional, external resources out there that can help students with their moving journey. For instance, Collegeboxes provides services that streamline the moving process for college students. Professional movers do the heavy lifting so housing officers and their staff can focus on keeping things running smoothly.
Collegeboxes partners with campuses across the U.S. and Canada, aiming to provide a low-cost solution that helps students and colleges alike. Learn more about our partnership program and how we can help student housing officers. By offering comprehensive support and resources, you can help make the transition to school as smooth and stress-free as possible for students and their families.
by Dr. Delton Gordon, Arkansas Tech University
Lately, I have pondered the distinguishable moments in my lifetime, both personally and professionally. While there have been memorable moments, like marrying the love of my life, being present for the birth of my son, graduating with my PhD., or getting my first Senior Housing Officer role, my life can easily be divided into Delton before turkeys and Delton after turkeys.
We started our flock of chickens shortly after moving to Arkansas. My wife, Sarah, had always dreamed of having chickens so she could name them after Disney Princesses. I quickly went about researching and building a chicken coop as well as adding a run so the newest members of our family could get about safely. Sarah took online classes to understand chickens and the care. It became a passion to understand these simple, but fascinating animals. It was important to get breeds that laid beautifully colored eggs or the birds themselves had unique traits. If you are aware of chicken math, you’ll understand, but quickly eight birds turned into fifteen. After the first year passed and we had fallen in love with the descendants of dinosaurs, we decided to “order” a few birds from an online breeder. This was a whole new level of obsession, allowing us to choose one or two of each breed, a plethora of procurement options were now available to us.
Farming and ranching were quite prominent in my genealogy research, with my fifth great grandfather and his brothers settling the lands of Effingham County, Illinois with their hogs. They are noted in the History of Effingham County Illinois (1883, Perrin, W.H.). They were quite the nuisance as they herded their swine through other settlers’ property. I suppose that is why fences became popular. Thus, the desire to raise and care for animals runs strong though my heritage.
However, while chickens were certainly the starting point, I ultimately fell in love with raising turkeys. On a whim, I decided to order one turkey to surprise the family. It was a heritage breed, Bourbon Red Turkey. Most larger breed chickens are easily distinguishable at birth what sex they are, however Turkeys are much more difficult. So, it would be months before we knew if it was a jake (male) or a jenny (female). Thus, making naming of our turkey a little challenging. After a few months go along, we realized our turkey was a hen, and thus Thursday was christened. I’m here to tell you, that’s when I knew my life would change.
Turkeys are inquisitive, curious, and quite social. Thursday is no exception; she absolutely loves people…maybe more than her fellow turkeys (definitely more than ducks)! There are lots of moments in life where we can look back and say, my life was different before…this job, this person, this pet, this trip…but I am here to tell you, I can easily say, my life with turkeys (especially Thursday) is a clear dividing line. I challenge you to think about your life’s dividing line…what are things/people/places that you can distinguish a clear before and after?
by Beth Eppinger, Texas Woman's University
by Drew Jahr, Texas Tech University
Change is a fact of life and dealing with it can be difficult for anyone. For me, to truly deal with the change, I find that I need to do a lot of self-reflection to determine what is causing me the difficulty. Recently for me, change has come from a lot of different directions. Being the President of SWACUHO came with a lot of responsibilities and follow up. Now that role has concluded, and thus I have experienced a lot of change within my priorities and how I organize my time. It has left me a little confused on how to re-focus my energies.
Another major change I have been addressing has been changes within my department. Last year, we went through a major re-organization, and I needed to spend significant time setting the vision for my department and supporting my team through the associated changes. I also found myself re-focusing the value I place on my work. My work is what I do, it is not who I am. This was a realization that recently hit home for me. It has been a struggle but rewarding as I have continued to work on myself. We all struggle from time to time, but it is how one bounces back that truly matters. Do you allow the changes to overcome your life or do you take the changes as potential successful opportunities to learn and continue growing as a professional.
Recently, I decided to make a commitment to re-evaluate my view on life and work. It was truly something I had needed to do for many years, but I never took the time to do it. I made excuses such as not having the time, or something else was more important. Ultimately, I never did it. Several years ago, I had a colleague tell me “No one ever put on their tomb stone 'I wish I could have worked more!' Another colleague asked me “Do you want to work to live or live to work?” These comments did not mean much at the time they were shared, but now they have progressed to being front and center on my mind.
For those that don’t know, last year I went on a river cruise to celebrate the 50-year wedding anniversary of my parents. During that time, I was able to do some self-reflection and not be disturbed by work. I realized I want to work to live, but I am currently practicing live to work. I find that it seems like all I do is work. Even when I am not at work, I work. While I do get enjoyment out of the work I do, I know it is not a healthy way to live one's life.
Now comes the challenge that I need to address. What does one do about it? The work still needs to get done and the philosophy of working to live should not be an excuse for not getting things completed and being seen as dependable in the workplace. While I am early in this journey, I hope that I can find that balance in my life. Time will tell. If anyone else is going through a similar journey, I wish you well. Should you want to connect and share your journey and tips that you have found successful, please reach out.
Southwest Association of College & University Housing Officers
624 W. University DrivePMB 418Denton, TX 76201
webmaster@swacuho.org
