In July Chico State announced their plan to change the move-in day to August 18 for all first years. Traditionally first years would move in over the course of a week, and with well over 2,000 students moving into the dormitories, the idea of moving them in over the course of one day is hard to picture going well. What exactly did they hope to achieve with this stunt?

It turns out the goal was to try and improve upon the residential housing experience. Moving in over the course of one day can help students become more engaged and excited about moving onto campus.

When I moved into Whitney Hall four years ago, I was assigned the first move-in day. Even though only two of Whitney’s eight housing floors were moving in the experience proved to be stressful at times. Parking, drop-offs and sharing two elevators with one hundred other people are all problems that come together to create a not so convenient experience.

As the day progressed, I began to settle in to my new home. Any issues we had turned into minor hang-ups and my experience became surreal. This was my new home for the year. I had a new roommate and new neighbors and these were the people that I would soon meet.

A whole new environment with whole new people seemed overwhelming, but I was on the same boat as every other person moving in, and there is a special camaraderie that comes with that. Some of Chico State’s greatest attributes are the small town vibe and sense of community. I felt strongly connected to all the people that moved in the same day I did.

Before the move-in day this year I was naturally skeptical about the idea of cramming a week’s worth of work into one day. However when the day actually came, the process didn’t seem as bad as imagined. It actually looked to be running really well.

The day started early for most movers and traffic seemed to be at its worst during the early morning. But this was just a short episode of mayhem. Thanks to a huge amount of student volunteers along with some professionals, the day seemed to run smoothly with no serious problems.

The fact that everyone was moving in on the same day was interesting. The campus was flooded with families and students trying to adjust. The first day of the residential housing experience was shared with nearly everyone that was moving. Speaking from experience, a shared move-in day truly does help in building a stronger community feel between you and the people you shared it with.

Move-in day was exciting when it was over the course of a week. As the week would progress you could see the correlation between the energy level of the campus and the number of students who had moved in. This year really succeeded and brought a good welcoming experience, along with showing the great community in Chico.

Jeff Guzman can be reached at [email protected] or @theorion_news on Twitter.