When incoming MSU student Braedyn Locke signed up for his new student orientation, he expected to be spending two days in East Lansing, meeting new people and getting to know campus. However, due to the outbreak of COVID-19, MSU New Student Orientation (NSO), like many other things, will be held virtually for U.S. citizens.
“I was excited to go down there (to East Lansing) and meet a bunch of people,” Locke said. “It’s kind of disappointing that I have to do that from home, looking at a computer screen because that’s just not the same.”
Locke said he first heard that orientation would be held online from his friends who were sharing their disappointment in a group chat.
The NSO office directed The State News to their FAQ page for more information on how the virtual program will run.
According to the webpage, the in-person NSO date students signed up for will remain the same and be part of their virtual orientation experience. The website says that virtual orientation will resemble the in-person experience in “multiple ways.”
“Almost all of the sessions you would have been able to attend in-person will be available as a recording,” the webpage says. “You can watch these recordings and have access to digital resources. You will also get the opportunity to meet with an Orientation Leader and other new students in a virtual small group format where you will be able to ask any questions on a regular basis. There will also be opportunities to attend weekly live webinars or watch the recorded versions with campus service representatives.”
Locke said he was confident he would still get all of the information he needed before starting his freshman year, but feels like it might be an overload of facts to be explained on a virtual platform.
Despite the parallels between the two programs, incoming student Prakul Adhi Suresh Kumar said when he heard orientation would be transitioning to online it “stung.”
“I was actually kind of sad just because I wanted the MSU experience,” Kumar said. “I signed up for a two-day orientation and it just kind of stung that it is all online now.”
Marquette, Michigan native Deidre Gorkowski said the most disappointing part for her is missing out on the opportunity to meet and spend time with her future classmates, especially after the cancellations of proms, graduations and other events her and her peers have had to deal with.
“After all of this ... we were all looking forward to being able to celebrate with new people, so it’s really disappointing,” Gorkowski said. “Unless you have social media you’re not really going to meet anyone else that’s going (to MSU) from different cities or anything. A lot of people were depending on this time to make friends before they go to college.”
Incoming student Douglas Albert is from San Jose, California and said he is disappointed not to have the opportunity to travel cross-country this summer.
“It will make it a little tougher adjusting for sure,” Albert said. “I was definitely disappointed because I was obviously looking forward to it and meeting new people, so that was kind of the biggest blow to me.”
Aside from the social aspect, Kumar expressed concern of missing out on an opportunity to get to know MSU’s campus better.
“I just wanted to get a feel of how it would be after moving to East Lansing but now I’m just walking in blind in August,” Kumar said.
Locke said he was concerned about navigating campus without an in-person orientation at first, until him and his friends started exploring East Lansing virtually through apps.
“It’s kind of a really, really big campus, and I was worried about not knowing where anything is when I finally did get down there,” Locke said. “But I have taken tours and my friend has an app with a bunch of different maps showing where everything is, so I’m not too worried about that anymore.”
The NSO website acknowledged students' desire to have an on-campus experience and said that they are “currently working on options to allow students to do so in August prior to the start of classes.”
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