Wearing royal blue T-shirts decked with stars, Park Hall's Opening Committee members greeted and assisted students moving into Ball State University's newest housing addition last week. The committee members had moved in four days before the incoming residents to plan hall-focused Welcome Week activities, the same routine performed by other residence hall opening committees. Park Hall's Opening Committee, however, faced the tasks on a different plane - plans had to be created from scratch.
Through in-person meetings toward the end of Spring Semester to a Facebook group created for sharing ideas over summer vacation, the committee kept lines of communication open for suggestions, Jacinta Yanders, junior and committee member, said.
Committee candidates underwent an application and selection process early last spring to become members of the committee. Each committee member, with the exception of the committee chair, held equal status and shared duties throughout the Welcome Week preparations, Yanders said.
Fellow junior and committee chair Kim Edenborough said she felt she was "feeling her way blindly" as she coordinated the group's activities and hit a few road bumps along the way.
At the committee's preliminary meetings last spring, the group chose an "old Hollywood" theme and mapped out certain visual elements to decorate the hall; however, in order to preserve the condition of the building, the members were forced to nix the d+â-¬cor.
"We weren't allowed to have decorations around because of the new, chic architecture of Park, and [so] all of our focus was on getting everyone moved in," Edenborough said.
Move-in day was Edenborough's main concern. Unlike other residence halls on campus, the Park Hall staff moved residents in without the assistance of Red Squad leaders, and the hall's continued construction and landscaping slowed the process.
"We had trouble and couldn't move people in because people were clogged around the front and side doors," Edenborough said.
Fortunately for the Opening Committee, she said, several parents informed the committee they had a smooth move-in day, possibly "the best move-in they'd ever had."
Yanders, the only member of Park Hall's Opening Committee with previous committee experience, took charge of creating packets for incoming residents and helped with check-in, where all residents received a commemorative coin engraved with an image of the building and the first move-in date.
Also unlike other residence halls on campus, Park Hall houses only three freshmen, a statistic the committee had to consider when choosing Welcome Week events.
"It's easier to get freshmen to go to events because they want to make friends," Riley Steinmetz, senior and one of three second-floor resident assistants, said. "You have to think outside the box for upperclassmen. We needed to play off people's excitement."
Edenborough and her committee executed two events aimed at residents of all ages: a building-wide scavenger hunt to "get residents out and about" to see the hall's unique features, such as its bike garage and music room; and "Funnel in the Tunnel," a carnival-inspired social in the building's tunnel-shaped entrance, she said.
Park Hall's newbie status held nothing against them at Sunday evening's Opening Committee reception, where Park Hall won this year's "Best Opening Committee Teamwork" award.
Yanders, who attended last year's committee reception as well, said she enjoys seeing the myriad of opening committee themes together in one spot. As for Park Hall's future at the annual reception, "we're really making progress," she said.
The award is now on display at Park Hall's front desk.
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