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Move-in day surprises students
 Media Credit: Marie McCutcheon Husky Haulers were onhand Monday to help freshman, transfer students and their families unload cars, trucks and vans. This year the route incoming students took was altered to prevent the congestion that has been a problem in previous years. Bottlenecking has occurred in the past as a result of the immense number of students moving into Shoemaker, Sherburne Halls.
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 Media Credit: Jessica Tonsfeldt and Marie McCutcheon An unfortunate event takes place during transport of one student’s belongings when a container tips over, spilling everything inside of it.
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 Media Credit: Jessica Tonsfeldt and Marie McCutcheon Students and parents wait for the use of the elevators and form lines outside Stearns Hall.
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 Media Credit: Jessica Tonsfeldt and Marie McCutcheon A public safety officer directs traffic by W. W. Holes Hall on Monday morning.
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The haze-filled sky Monday morning appeared to be the only unclear part of the day. As nearly 2000 freshman moved into their new campus homes for this school year, the confusion, chaos and tension of years prior was missing.
Campus was eerily quiet. Apart from the KISS 96 van and the idling of engines, the yelling, honking and anger normally expressed in prior years was missing on move-in day.
How could this be? Any student who is at least a sophomore and has lived on campus at one time would agree that this craziness was a constant in the equation of moving into the dorms.
"We changed things up a lot since last year," said Nathan Church, Vice President of Student Life and Development. "We started immediately after last year."
Student Life meets with the St. Cloud Police and the University Public Safety immediately after move-in day each year. They sit down and look at how to improve things for the following year.
"The St. Cloud Police Department has been very cooperative," Church said. "They gave us a better route."
Last year the St.Cloud Police came to the conclusion that the traffic congestion known for the back up along 5th Avenue could be prevented. Instead of telling the students to come via 5th Avenue, they were instead instructed to come in on 9th Avenue/Clearwater Road and 16th Street South. This change in direction was the first major part in relieving traffic congestion and making the day go smoother.
The second factor in making the day well orchestrated was to not have all students move in on the same day. On Sunday, residents moved in to Shoemaker, Sherburne and Stateview Halls. These halls are home to the largest number of students, Chrch said.
"Bottlenecking occurred mostly due to these students," Church said. "A lot of this is accredited to Res-Life in seeing this."
The third part of the reduction in chaos was changes to move-in day parking. In past years students were directed to the K-Lot "staging area," which meant that all the vehicles that were moving students in had to sit in a lot and wait to be directed.
This year K-Lot was used as a parking lot and vehicles were given directions to parking when they got to Atwood Mall as to where to drive to and park to unload for their dorm.
Public Safety was also on hand to help direct traffic and make sure things went smoothly so that no one got lost.
"It's going perfectly," said Field Training Officer Mohammed Saeed. Saeed was helping direct traffic on the mall to the appropriate parking lots.
"Most of the people are in K-Lot," Saeed said. "We are basically direction guides so that the different lots have the right people for the different dorms. So far no complaints."
This year 900 students returned to the dorms in addition to the incoming freshman.
"It really has proven to be a much better system of moving," Church said. "We wanted to do (the 9th Avenue route) last year but it was too last minute. As a consequence was saw some ways to make a significant improvement."
There were a few disgruntled faces of those moving in. Many people did not like having to park away from the dorms and carry their things in.
Like many of the incoming freshman, Sarah Anderson took part in Monday's moving madness. She had already helped her older brother move in at University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, so she was no stranger to the move-in process.
Her dad, Kevin, was surprised at the orchestration of the day.
"We had friends at our church who told us we'd be waiting all day," he said.
"We even packed a lunch."
The Andersons did not have to wait all day, however, and soon found themselves moving Sarah into her 7th floor room in Stearns Hall.
Sarah, who is planning to major in English, had already completed a year of Post Secondary Education at Anoka-Ramsey Community College, but his will be the first time she has lived on campus.
"I am ready for school," Sarah said. "But I guess it will be different to be away from home."
She said she likes how SCSU's campus is as large as the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, but not too small, either.
Like many first-year students, the concept of living in smaller spaces with tons of stuff is a new to Sarah. She watched as other women on her floor unload their things.
"It just seems likes I have a lot," she said. "Then I see everyone else."
She added she was glad she didn't bring everything.
"Slowly I'll add," she said.
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