The annual tradition of freshmen being introduced to college through Bear Beginnings continued last week with the goals of teaching students academic expectations, educating about social issues, introducing cultural opportunities, connecting with faculty and meeting with other students to build friendships. In hopes of fulfilling all these goals, the First Year Center scheduled a busy program for the freshmen that includes Convocation, residential advisor meetings, First Year Reading Program discussions, skits, and other events and activities.

While the FYC has the ostensibly good intention of providing freshmen with a memorable and educational orientation experience, freshmen instead appeared to spend the program overwhelmed and exhausted, and there wasn’t enough time for them to recover for the first day of classes.

With classes moving up a day to a Monday start this year, freshmen lost a corresponding day of orientation, and the resulting condensation of the schedule into just 3 1/2 days is simply too exhausting. We all remember the stress of move-in, with its accompanying introductions to new people, places and excessive ice breakers, and it simply doesn’t make sense to deprive the newest students on campus a few moments of reprieve.

We are not proposing the complete elimination of Bear Beginnings, as much of the program is necessary and important for freshmen. For example, the various skits put on by students—“Our Names, Our Stories,” “The Date” and “Choices”—teach important lessons about cultural differences, sexual assault and decision-making that can be valuable for students just beginning college. Focusing on these larger issues in particular avoids the potential to overwhelm freshmen with information. When combined with near-constant programming and activities, however, these important messages can be lost in Bear Beginnings’ fatigue-inducing schedule.

Perhaps most importantly, the over-scheduling is so intent on educating new students that the social component of orientation can be lost. By cutting down the number of scheduled events, freshmen will have the time they need to form friendships and settle into the Washington University community. It’s important to give students the time to socialize so that they feel comfortable when they attend their first day of classes.

At the very least, students need the time to finish unpacking. With the current schedule for Bear Beginnings, freshmen are given just Thursday afternoon to unpack, which isn’t nearly enough time and could cause stress. More time would also give freshmen the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the St. Louis community, which is extremely important—on Sunday, a number of freshmen stayed on the South 40 in lieu of exploring the Delmar Loop simply to relax and unwind.

Many freshmen are moving thousands of miles away from home, which can naturally be a very intimidating, stressful experience. If they are thrown into the fire without time to relax, this increases the possibility of burning them out; without building up the social support and community, they won’t have anyone to help them cope with that burnout.

With the newly condensed orientation time frame, the FYC should reconsider the sheer number of events scheduled to help freshmen adjust to college life in a more relaxing manner.