O-Week goes high-tech

In the Western Dimension, the future is digital. This year, the sale of O-Week kits for first year students has moved to the online realm in an effort to boost efficiency, replacing old methods of distribution.

“It just seemed strange to everyone that it’s 2011 and online sales haven’t been offered, [even though] you can pretty much buy anything online,” Aleigha Schurman, orientation coordinator, explained.

With over 6,000 first year students paying cash over the course of only a few hours, Schurman believed a debit or credit option was desperately needed to minimize cash flow and give students one less thing to worry about on move-in day. Students who ordered online can pick up their $76 kit at their residence, affiliate college or off-campus headquarters.

“The online kit sales have definitely been very popular,” Schurman said. “It’s going to be interesting to see how everything plays out on move-in day, which is when we will see if everything has paid off, but we’ve had many discussions about how to make sales and kit distribution as possible and I am totally confident it’s going to go smoothly.”

O-Week kits are made up of a laundry bag filled with a water bottle, calendar, white board, clipboard, merchandise from sponsors and constituencies, and of course, the coveted O-Week event wristband.