Organisation of an orientation week

• Workshop presenters have been organising the O-Week for three years now

What is the purpose of the O-Week?

• Creating an introduction for first-year students
• Recruitment of members

Cooperation partners

• AStA
• Office of Student Affairs (management of the School)
• with other student bodies (in addition to Economics also with Computing Science etc.)

Organisation of the O-Week

• one day with a welcome (breakfast with the first-year students in the canteen, getting to know each other, initial information, what happens during the week)
• two-part programme
• Flunky ball, beer pong and other event areas
• second day characterised by the Teamer programme (how to register for a module, timetable help, what to know about the student body → university facts (evening: pub crawl)
• Bachelor's and Master's O-week, as Bachelor's students can only start in the winter semester
• Third day with a big city rally (approx. 4 hours)
• Evening: closed society (semester start party)
• Participants report on their O-week
• Many overlaps, but several days - O-week, i.e. from Mondays to Fridays or even Thursdays + weekend - Fridays
• Question: Why the President's welcome in the afternoon?
• Easter Eggs to entertain first-year students
• Organising an O-week is very time-consuming
• Participant reports that the O-Week was organised alone
• Select a good location in order to maintain contacts during the semester
• University cities differ greatly due to their size (comparison: Lübeck, Kiel, Paderborn,...)
• Alcohol consumption is a big topic during the O-week
• other universities offer night hikes, joint raves or even after-movies
• Problem that preparatory courses are scheduled during O-Week so that not all first-year students can take part in both events
• Room bookings often pose major challenges
• Optimising the O-Week is always an important topic

Organisation, or not?

• Arrangements with room planning
• Development of conflicts
• ASta plays a special role
• Prepare plan B → very difficult...
• Grouping difficult, as the list cannot be handed out for data protection reasons
• Review of 2021: Corona significantly restricts O-week
• Communication is the key
• Team training especially for FSR external helpers
• Shift planning
• Preparation is half the battle, timely organisation start and planning
• Shifts change depending on the School

Realisation

• Keep an overview to counteract problems
• Plan for stand-ins and cancellations
• Communication channels to all those involved
• Main organiser must and should always be available

Follow-up

• Obtain feedback
• Do not take re-registering students too personally
• Updating guidelines/instructions
• Problem: Problem of new recruits

discussion

• What does your O-week look like? (many overlaps, resort allocations)
• Participation (varies greatly depending on the university; some numbers are declining)
• Willingness in the FSR (open approach to first-year students / first-year students have the feeling that FSR is boring)
• Alcohol (non-drinkers have disadvantages?, first-year students have consumed less alcohol after corona and prefer it to be of higher quality, flunkyball was also very well received with soft drinks, pushing tutors because of alcohol, city rally often focuses on alcoholic drinks) → create flexibility so that no one can be disadvantaged
• Smaller groups rather than large groups
• Familiarisation games often help at the beginning to take away shyness and also to make initial contacts