Welcome changes

[feather_share show="twitter, google_plus, facebook, reddit, tumblr" hide="pinterest, linkedin, mail"]

A recommendation by the Welcome Week Advisory Committee for an Aug. 29 and 30 move-in day schedule for Welcome Week has been confirmed for next year.

Due to a late-falling Labour Day this year, the structure of Welcome Week 2015 is expected to differ significantly from previous years. Traditionally, the Saturday and Sunday of Labour Day weekend have been marked as the official move-in days to kick off the beginning of Welcome Week, with events continuing concurrently with the start of school on the Thursday.

With the recent announcement and the fall schedule beginning Tuesday Sept. 8, Welcome Week is instead expected to run completely before Labour Day, and thus run separate from the school term.

Beyond that, the options are completely open.

“That announcement marking the move-in days was also the official confirmation for us,” said MSU VP (Admin) Jacob Brodka at the Feb. 22 SRA meeting.

“We’ve had a few conversations about how the week will look, and the next task which we’ll start to look at [will be] the keystones of the week, so we can position those and give a sense of guidance for everyone else who is trying to book venues.”

“The reality is, right now, it’s a blank slate, and that’s the next task for the committee,” Brodka said.

The Welcome Week Advisory Committee is still deciding on the official end of Welcome Week for next year, but a positive recommendation has been put forward for Sunday Sept. 6, in order to leave Labour Day as a recess between orientation events and the fall term.

In the previous SRA meeting on Feb. 8, Brodka acknowledged that moving in the week before the Labour Day weekend would cost students a slight increase in residence fees. However, he noted in that scenario that Residence Life would forego the $15 orientation levy received from each student, reallocating the funds to various other programming options.

A positive recommendation by the WWAC was also made and approved by the Student Services Committee involving a five percent increase of the Welcome Week levy going to faculty societies, as well as a 1.4 percent or about a $10,000 increase to the MSU to cover the Faculty Coordinator position. In addition, $11,000 will remain to cover special projects during the week involving mental health, consent and gender violence, and substance abuse, as well as equity in funding of programming for smaller faculties.

[feather_share show="twitter, google_plus, facebook, reddit, tumblr" hide="pinterest, linkedin, mail"]