Organising an orientation week

• The workshop organisers have been organising Orientation Week for the past three years

What is the aim of the Orientation Week?

• To help freshers get started
• Recruiting members

Partners

• AStA
• Student Office (School Administration)
• with other student bodies (not only Economics but also Computing Science, etc.)

Schedule for Orientation Week

• One day with a welcome session (breakfast with the freshers in the canteen, getting to know each other, initial information, what’s happening during the week?)
• A two-part programme
• Flunky-Ball, beer pong and other event areas
• Second day focused on the team leaders’ programme (how to enrol on a module, help with timetables, what you need to know about the student body → university facts (evening: pub crawl)
• Bachelor’s and Master’s orientation week, as Bachelor’s students can only start in the winter semester
• Third day features a big city treasure hunt (approx. 4 hours)
• Evening: private event (start-of-term party)
• Participants report on their orientation week
• Many overlaps, though spanning several days – Orientation Week, i.e. from Monday to Friday or even from Thursday through the weekend to Friday
• Question: Why is the President’s welcome speech in the afternoon?
• Easter eggs to entertain freshers
• Organising an orientation week is very time-consuming
• One participant reports that the orientation week was organised single-handedly
• Select a good location to maintain contacts even between semesters
• University towns vary greatly in size (e.g. Lübeck, Kiel, Paderborn,...)
• Alcohol consumption is a major issue during orientation week
• Other universities offer night-time walks, group raves or even after-movie events
• The problem is that preparatory courses are scheduled during Orientation Week, meaning not all freshers can attend both events
• Booking rooms often poses major challenges
• Improvements to Orientation Week are always a key issue

Organising it, or not?

• Coordination with the room allocation team
• Conflicts arising
• The ASta plays a special role
• Preparing Plan B → very difficult...
• Group allocation is difficult, as the list cannot be distributed for data protection reasons
• Looking back at 2021: Covid-19 significantly curtailed Orientation Week
• Communication is key
• Team training specifically for FSR external helpers
• Shift planning
• Preparation is half the battle: starting organisation in good time and planning
• Shifts vary depending on the School

Implementation

• Keep an overview to anticipate and resolve problems
• Allow for stand-ins and absences
• Establish communication channels with all those involved
• The main organiser must and should always be available

Follow-up

• Seek feedback
• Do not take feedback too personally
• Updates to guidelines/instructions
• Problem: Shortage of young talent

Discussion

• What does your orientation week look like? (lots of overlaps, division of responsibilities between departments)
• Attendance (varies greatly depending on the university; some figures are declining)
• Engagement within the FSR (open engagement with freshers / freshers feel that the FSR is boring)
• Alcohol (are non-drinkers at a disadvantage?, freshmen have been drinking less since the pandemic and prefer higher-quality drinks; Flunkyball was also very well received with soft drinks; tutors pushing for alcohol; city rallies often focus on alcoholic drinks) → create flexibility so that no one is put at a disadvantage
• Smaller groups rather than large ones
• Icebreaker games often help at the start to overcome shyness and enable initial contacts to be made