Students welcomed back to vibrant, sometimes virtual TU campus
TU welcomes students with in-person, online events during official fall term kickoff
By Kyle Hobstetter on August 18, 2020
After the COVID-19 pandemic sent students home early during the 2020 spring term, Towson University’s Office of Campus Life didn’t know if their nearly 23,000 charges would be back in the fall.
That put Welcome to TU, the university’s annual official kickoff to the new school year, in jeopardy.
The Welcome to TU committee started meeting back in February, but initial plans were scrapped due to the pandemic.
“As things, plans and information evolved, so did the work of the committee and what we needed to do to make all of this happen,” says Katie Murray, director of New Student & Family Programs and one of the organizers of Welcome to TU.
“A lot of planning has really happened in the last six weeks, taking our framework and modifying it to make it work in this environment.”
Some in-person events include bingo; a physically distant silent disco; make and take events, such as the popular Stuff-a-Tiger; an outdoor movie; and a video game tournament in West Village.
Remote events include virtual escape rooms, treasure hunts, an online murder mystery and open mic night. Students will also meet with advisers, student organizations, workshops and more through Zoom.
“Our goal with Welcome to TU is to show we have a vibrant campus,” says Elizabeth Purswani, assistant director of programming for the Office of Student Activities. “We tried to develop a calendar of items, educational programs, social programming and get-togethers that were virtual as well as in person.
“All the in-person programs are going to follow guidelines and CDC regulations. We have a wide variety of events to give students a choice.”
With move-in extending from two days to 10, the Campus Life team looked to other departments on campus—including the Office of Fraternity & Sorority Life, Center for Student Diversity, Office of Student Activities, Office of Civic Engagement and Social Responsibilit[BROKEN LINK]y and Campus Rec—to help keep the early returners occupied.
“We pulled together our group of campus programmers who are experts in this and asked how we can leverage their help and support,” Murray says. “It was really awesome to see our colleagues jump in. People were willing to contribute across the board.”
According to Murray and Purswani, one of the most difficult decisions they had to make was canceling events that were staples of Welcome to TU.
This included TU Takeover, the annual opening weekend pep rally, and Set It Off, a block party designed to introduce new students to TU’s multicultural organizations.
They also had to cancel the group photo of the new students forming a giant TU on Burdick Field. But they have found a virtual workaround: Students can add a selfie to an online photo collage using the hashtag #ReadyTURoar or tagging New Student and Family Programs on Instagram and Twitter. The final photo will be revealed on August 23 at 9 p.m.
Along with community-building events, there are some that are mandatory for all incoming students. Convocation starts at 4 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 20. Usually held in a packed SECU Arena, this year’s edition will be completely virtual and broadcast from Howard J. Kaplan Hall in the Center for the Arts.
After that, incoming students will virtually meet with their First-Year Experience (FYE) advisers and participate in online workshops developed just for them.
“We’re a people campus, and if you’re having problems connecting, we hopefully scaffolded enough of a support system for you,” Purswani says. “With your orientation leader from the summer, your FYE adviser, your resident assistant and all the other resources on campus, we hope that there's somebody that you can reach out to.
“We know that it's not normal by any means. But this is where we're at, and we still want to support students as they're jumping into this journey.”
Download the Welcome to TU schedule
In the TU Events app, search for the Welcome to TU guide, and hit download. You can also download the Office of Student Activities guide to learn about events for the entire fall term.
Students can also install the CORQ app to connect to Involved@TU and receive a personalized QR code they will need to attend campus events. Students can check out more than 250 organizations through this app and on involved.towson.edu.