Museum Welcomes New Students to University

Freshman orientation at the Tate Student Center

Each year, thousands of new faces — ranging from excited to terrified — appear on campus, gearing up for the fall semester when they will officially be Georgia Bulldawgs. They are incoming freshman, transfer students and graduate students, and they all have the chance to hit the ground running with an orientation just for them. 

Orientation acts as a guide for new students to do everything they may need to accomplish before moving to Athens this fall. This includes registering for classes, taking placement exams, touring the dorms and getting an overview of all of the programs and offerings on campus at the Resource Fair.

The Georgia Museum of Art has participated at the Resource Fair for the past four years, and it has been a great opportunity to show attendees that no matter what their interests may be, the university has a place for them.

Michael Lachowski, one of the museum’s representatives at each orientation, said, “Participating in the Resource Fair is a big commitment for us — it’s a lot of days and a lot of hours for staff to be standing around, hoping for an opportunity to interest new students or their parents in what we have to offer at the museum.”

This is certainly true; there are 17 freshman and five transfer orientation sessions throughout this summer. Although the effort is not minimal for this commitment, Lachowski is optimistic about the results.

He continued, “[We] think it’s worth the effort. We want the museum to have a place at the fair the same as it should be in the students’ experience at Georgia. And maybe some of them will just remember they saw our banner that said ‘Georgia Museum of Art.’”

With a campus as large as the University of Georgia, it is easy to fear you will be lost in the mix. But orientation and the Resource Fair allow students to see that there are faces behind all of these units and organizations, and they are all ready to make your college experience the best it can be.

#welcomeuga

A new UGA student at orientation

As usual, the museum's department of communications had a busy summer. While much of UGA slows down from May to early August, and a good parking space is easy to find in downtown Athens, the university also runs orientation for the thousands of freshmen, transfer students and graduate students who will start classes next week. We want them at least to know the museum exists, so we show up and work a table at every orientation session: 15 for freshmen, 4 for transfer students, 1 for graduate students, 1 for international students and 1 for new faculty.

Our lovely volunteer with our Snapchat poster

We spent much of the summer hauling around our red wagon filled with copies of Facet, a tablecloth, a pop-up banner and our brand-new trifold brochure aimed at attracting people to the building (you can look for the latter at the Athens Welcome Center, the Athens Convention and Visitors Bureau and welcome centers around the state). Some times were slow, and we had a chance to observe the latest in 18-year-old fashion or enjoy some quality time with Corny the corn snake, who accompanies the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources to some sessions. We made new friends, both among the new students and among our fellow tablers. Other times were busy, and we got to deliver our spiel about the museum to dozens of people streaming by our table. We hope some of it sunk in. If students can remember that there's a museum on campus, we're doing our job.

We also decorated a dorm room, for the third year in a row. University Housing puts a call out for different departments on campus to spruce up its tour rooms during orientation, so they don't look as spartan. We always have fun trying to make our room look lived in but attractive, and our placement in Building 1516, which is just down the street from the museum, helps us make our case that students should get out and experience everything UGA has to offer. We're eager for the start of the new academic year, and with students moving into the dorms this week, we've already seen an uptick in foot traffic. We know we're not the first to say it, but welcome, new folks!

The museum's dorm room in Building 1516

Table No. 25: The Georgia Museum of Art at UGA’s Freshman Orientation

Over the summer, eager “baby dawgs” and their parents pour onto the University of Georgia campus for their first official look at the life of a college student: Freshman Orientation. Recognizable by their red lanyards, nametags and red tote bags, the soon-to-be UGA students walk into the Grand Hall at the Tate Student Center to learn about all of the new opportunities the university has to offer. 

UGA Orientation with student
Lawson Boling (right)

Bright and early twice a week, the museum’s communications team and I head to the Tate Student Center for UGA Freshman Orientation. We grab our cart of supplies from a meeting room, ride the elevator to the fifth floor and make our way to table number 25 in the Grand Hall. Ten minutes later, the Georgia Museum of Art table is ready to go.

We stand at attention and either greet students or let them approach us. Accompanying our table are two large banners, a large display of the museum’s Snapcode for Snapchat and an abundance of brochures and publications. When one of us catches the eye of a parent or student, a simple “Hi, how are you doing?” draws them to the table.

Once I have sparked their interest, I hand them a museum brochure or a copy of Facet, our quarterly publication, then give them a quick rundown about the location, current and upcoming exhibitions, the opportunities for students and the fact that entry to the museum is free (which tends to be the most surprising part).

My favorite, yet most challenging, part of this experience is to call out “Follow us on Snapchat!” to the students passing by the museum’s orientation table. I will either get a laugh and some sincere interest, or be blatantly ignored. The museum team gets a good kick out of it, but it works.

All in all, being present at UGA’s Freshman Orientation has been great. If the new freshmen and their parents did not know the museum existed before, they do now. We have met many parents at orientation with interest in our collection, exhibitions, opportunities for their child or children and questions about that strange poster in the middle of our table. The incoming students love the Snapchat poster and show enthusiasm for opportunities for student involvement at the museum.

Morgan Tickerhoof
Public Relations Intern