Story by Rick Vacek
Photos by Darryl Webb
GCU News Bureau
It’s an annual rite, like the swallows returning to Capistrano. Only the swallows don’t have throngs of cheering Grand Canyon University students chanting their names.
Every August, the Express Move-In at GCU’s Welcome Week features purple-shirted volunteers laughing, joking, screaming, waving, dancing, clapping, Lopes Upping and just generally going crazy as car after car, with license plates from all over the country, drives up to be unloaded in about a minute.
But the name recognition is what really makes it special. The swallows don’t know what they’re missing.
The volunteers directing traffic kept hearing about it Monday morning, on the first day of Move-In, as they wrote the student’s name, residence hall and room number on the car windshield. “I want to hear them call my name!” the students would say.
And then when it was time to drive up, the fun began.
“Welcome to GCU, Cynthia!”
“Brooke! Brooke! Brooke!”
Cars honking. Students cheering louder. The parents and students arriving on campus get to hear it only once, but the students keep doing it for every new batch of cars, about a dozen at a time. They seem to keep inventing new ways to have fun with it.
“The best thing about it,” said GCU President Brian Mueller, surveying the scene at The Grove residence halls, reserved exclusively for freshmen, “is that the students have taken this over and take responsibility for it. They were treated so well when they first got here, and now they want to pass it on.”
Every local television station was on hand early Monday to record the festivities for their morning newscasts. There was a lot happening, both out front and behind the scenes.
Dads high-fiving volunteers as they drive up.
Volunteers cheering the way people were driving.
Delightfully cooler than normal temperatures.
One volunteer using a spray bottle to cool off his fellow students.
Move-In humor: Volunteer goes up to another volunteer carrying a large box and acts as if he wants to shake hands.
More Move-In humor: One broad-shouldered volunteer lugs a mini-refrigerator by himself. The volunteer behind him carries a pillow, just to be funny. Hey, when you're carrying things up stairs all morning, you need a break once in awhile.
Parents who had a far different move-in experience at their university, way back when, came back after their car was unloaded and parked to record the event with their cell phone.
“We’ve heard it’s as awesome as it is,” said one mom, Cynthia Regardie, whose daughter Lauren was moving into Willow Hall. “We talked about how, back when we moved in to our college, we just had to figure it out — and wound up walking up and down about 50 times.”
The first cars rolled in to be unloaded at 6:30 a.m., about a half-hour ahead of schedule, and the same was done later in the morning for the second batch of move-ins at Acacia Hall.
“So far it’s gone pretty smoothly,” said Charity Norman, new student and family programs manager and the coordinator for all Welcome Week activities. “The mornings are a little hectic, but once it’s rolling it’s a well-oiled machine.”
After going through the move-in line, students and their families have a chance to catch their breath before orientation activities start in the afternoon.
“For the mornings, especially on the first day that you move in, we give that time to students just to get their room set up, go out to lunch with their family, go to the stores and get things that they need,” Norman said. “In the afternoon is when the orientation begins, and then the next several days they’re busy.”
It’s a way to get things off to a good start and see what GCU is all about. Mueller noted that the academic year starts and ends with two special events — Welcome Week and commencement — that act like book ends. In focus groups, he said, students have emphasized how important it is to gather in large numbers and bond.
“We just like to get together,” Mueller said.
Kind of like the swallows. But they don’t have nearly as much fun. It doesn't always pay to travel lighter.
Contact Rick Vacek at (602) 639-8203 or [email protected].
