The first day of college is a dream many people develop from the time they are young
children. Expectations are high.
In order to experience this first-day dream, however, Buffalo State makes it mandatory
for incoming freshman to first waste three days on orientation.
The purpose of orientation is for new students to become acquainted with college life.
Because college is so different from high school, this is necessary to ensure that freshman
have a fair chance at being successful in this new environment.
Orientation is supposed to be a useful tool. The orientation offered by Buffalo State
turned out to be an event I could have easily skipped and been no worse off for doing so.
I also could have saved $190, because not only does Buffalo State College make
orientation absolutely mandatory, but they also charge for the experience.
The major problem with orientation is the length. Freshmen are forced to remain on
campus for 11 hours a day. This is repeated for three days.
In addition to being a waste of time, orientation happened to take place during one of
the hottest weeks of the summer. If freshman were not forced to sit inside poorly air-
conditioned (if at all) classrooms, they were made to be outside in the sweltering heat.
Probably the worst part of this was the fact that no beverages were provided, except
during meals. Nobody would think to grab one at breakfast because the weather was mild
at that point. Any juice or water taken at lunch would be gone within a few hours, leaving
students thirsty for the remainder of the day.
Speaking of meals, the food was subpar. It was bland and dry. Perhaps the college
schedules such long days so that students become so hungry they do not notice the
quality of the “free” food they were provided.
Also lacking was the information the college provided. The majority of it was
information the freshmen were already supposed to know. It had been given out
numerous times before the start of the semester.
An entire hour was spent on learning to log in to various Buffalo State tools. Due to the
fact that students had already been required to access these tools to do activities over the
summer, this was pointless.
Despite all the monotonous planned activities, there were a couple good things that came
out of orientation.
For example, orientation leaders pointed out important places on campus and provided
information on each building. This was invaluable on the actual first day of school, when
students had to find their classes.
Plus, the suffering freshmen bonded over how horrible the whole experience was.
Orientation groups were divided by major, for the most part. So, on the first day of
classes, students could say they knew at least one person in each class.
But overall, orientation didn’t live up to expectations. The positive aspects it offered were
far outweighed by the negative ones. Freshmen would have been better off not being
charged to attend an event they could have done without.
Allison Leuppie can be reached by email at leuppie.record@live.com.