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Excitement is in the air.

In just a few days, thousands of students will transport loads of furnishings as they move-in to residence halls at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh for the start of a new school year and a new chapter in their lives.

The structured, streamlined process known as move-in, is the culmination of hours of planning and preparation by more than 40 full-time UW Oshkosh staff and over 200 student workers.

Preparations for the event began last fall and the massive move-in is a campuswide effort of many departments and volunteers.

“Our centralized drive-through, check-in process receives exceptionally positive reviews only because our entire campus community comes together to welcome students in their first homecoming. We couldn’t do this without the help of everyone around us,” said Liz Morrell, associate director of the Department of Residence Life.

Nearly 3,000 students and their families (and more than 4,000 vehicles) will arrive on campus between Saturday, Sept. 1 and Monday, Sept. 3. About 1,500 students are planning to arrive Sept. 2 alone.

By the numbers

  • More than 3,200 beds are assigned for the upcoming year.
  • More than 4,000 vehicles will come through the centralized drive-through check-in process between Saturday, Sept. 1 and Monday, Sept. 3. Vehicles pull into designated lanes and staff processes check-in to the residence hall—providing keys and unloading passes—without anyone leaving their vehicles.
  • About 9,000 color-coded materials are prepared for move-in.
  • More than 200 traffic cones are deployed across campus and in the surrounding communities
  • Two teams place more than 50 move-in route signs on Sept. 2 and Sept. 3, starting at 4:30 a.m.
  • About 1,800 bottles of UWO Titan Athletics water is consumed during move-in, as are nearly 1,000 cookies from Insomnia Cookies of Oshkosh—a move-in sponsor.

More than 1,500 person-hours are needed to execute the move-in process, with the majority of those hours coming from student, faculty, staff and alumni volunteers. Morrell said the unofficial MiTitan student volunteer vehicle unloading record is 1 minute, 12 seconds.

Start of new chapter
It’s a major transition for families who drop a student off at their new home away from home, Morrell said. But they should consider it a hallmark day—a start to a new, exciting and rewarding chapter in the student’s life.

“Focus on the experience and making those first memories as a UWO Titan, or family of a Titan,” Morrell said.

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