The University of Oregon’s summer orientation program, IntroDUCKtion, will be held remotely this year due to COVID-19 social distancing regulations, with a planned in-person component in the fall and a variety of content offered over several virtual platforms.
Previously, IntroDUCKtion was a required two-day event, but IntroDUCKtion 2020 will be a summer-long program for freshmen and a three-hour event for transfer students.
“We were committed to not trying to just duplicate things,” Cora Bennett, director of Student Orientation Programs, said.
IntroDUCKtion began with an opening session on June 24, according to UO’s orientationwebsite. Flock meetings began on July 6 and will continue through August, with other components offered through September.
Bennett had seen other schools directly converting their orientation programs into digital formats, some requiring students to sit at their computers for hours at a time.
“It didn’t feel like us,” Bennett said. “It didn’t feel like the UO to do anything like that.”
The university has already released some of its orientation content, including aVirtual Visit and several episodes of Flock Talk, a podcast directed toward new students and families.
Using multiple platforms is part of UO’s strategy to keep IntroDUCKtion engaging and to utilize the benefits of a virtual experience, Bennett said.
“This is an opportunity,” Bennett said. “Yes, it’s different, yes, it’s outside of what we think is our best practice as a profession, but I think we get to establish a whole set of new norms that for me are really exciting.”
This summer’s IntroDUCKtion programming will include more content than is typically available to students, Bennett said, including more student interest sessions and opportunities to hear from faculty.
Traditionally, a student would hear only one faculty perspective. This summer, students can choose 10 and have the opportunity to complete reflections after watching and earn one academic credit.
IntroDUCKtion will still include “flock” meetings between students and Student Orientation Staffers. Hosting these weekly, one-hour meetings will be the primary job of SOSers, Bennett said, who are already planning how to help their students get the best experience possible.
“I’m hoping if I give a chance for the students to communicate with each other outside of the flock, they’ll have a better time at making friends and understanding things,” SOSer Sabrina Schimscheimer said.
New students will get to talk with their peers for two months instead of two days, a benefit of this year’s experience, Schimscheimer said. But, if given the choice, Schimscheimer would still pick an in-person experience.
“Online, you’re already isolated,” Schimscheimer said. “It’s going to be more difficult for students to interact.”
Over 4,500 first-year students, 770 transfer students and 5,300 family members have registered for IntroDUCKtion. UO expects more students to register, Bennett said, but current numbers are similar to what UO has seen before. Latecomers can join until mid-July and UO offers a special program for students registering later.
Previously, attending students would have to commit to UO and have their tuition deposit paid, Bennett said, but virtual programming allowed UO to offer the orientation to all admitted students and use it as a marketing opportunity.
“It’s hard for people not to fall in love with the UO during IntroDUCKtion in person,” Bennett said. “So that’s the thing I think we worry that we’re missing, is that connection to the physical space and the people can get lost in a remote setting.”
Orientation staff and student coordinators began forming plans for remote IntroDUCKtion in March, Bennett said, but still hoped an in-person Week of Welcome could incorporate events like the play “It Can’t Be Rape” and “Your Story, Our Story,” a presentation on equity and diversity.
Given current events, Bennett expected to see students more interested in having meaningful conversations surrounding diverse identities and perspectives, like in “Your Story, Our Story.”
“Thankfully we had already set that aside before the recent protests and the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and others have been coming to light,” Bennett said. “We know now that we need to do even more work on that program.”
“We really want to get students to begin to think about their place in a larger community and what equity truly is,” she said.
