Residence halls spring to life with new students, who bring treasures from home

A tie-died tapestry. A squishy pillow. A treasured guitar.

These are just a few of the things members of the Chapman University Class of 2017 brought with them Tuesday, Aug. 20, as they arrived for freshman move-in day.

“I wanted to find another way to annoy my roommates,” joked Tzuni Lopez, an English major from Tustin, lifting her Epiphone Hummingbird guitar from its case.

Her roommate, Briona Baker, a graphic design major from Phoenix, laughed.

“I’m all for it,” she said.

Lopez and Baker were just two of the some 1,200 freshmen who moved into Chapman University’s residence halls. Students were greeted with cold drinks, warm smiles and an ocean of bright blue shopping carts for hauling in all that stuff from their parents’ overloaded cars.

Amid the activity was Jerry Price, Ph.D., dean of students and vice chancellor for student affairs. Price makes a point of circulating through the residence halls as families unpack.

“The first-year experience is a very critical part of the overall Chapman experience, and move-in day truly can set the tone for the entire year. So I clear my schedule on move-in day and roam from residence hall to residence hall greeting new students and their families and making sure that their first day at Chapman goes every bit as well as they expect it to,” Price says.

The day kicks off New Student and Family Orientation, a week of activities designed to acquaint students with the campus and introduce them to Chapman’s traditions. Among the week’s highlights is Convocation 2013, the formal ceremony at which the faculty welcomes the new students.