4 September 21, 2009

Welcome to the Jungle

Throw your hands up if you like sober

underage fun!

by Brittany BANKS Reporter

“NSO is way better than I thought it would be”, says a first year student.

Ryan Luttrell, a first year student at UPEI, expressed his surprise and enthusiasm for this year’s New Student Orientation. He was among 600 other students who had registered for the weekend, which took place September 11th-13th.

NSO is an annual event held at UPEI. Its purpose is to welcome incoming stu- dents to the university, and to provide them with all the essentials they will need to survive university life.

The theme for this year’s

NSO was “Welcome to the Jungle,” featuring events such as Playfair, Damian the Hypnotist, Campus Wide Manhunt, Tarzan and Jane’s Jungle Event at The Wave (featuring band, Sunday Punch), Picnic Face Com- edy Hour, and of course the ever-beloved, Shinerama.

Though NSO is an annual event, coordinators Patrick Greco and Megan Jennings wanted to put their own stamp on this year’s activi- ties.

“Everything about NSO, we tried to reinvent,” said Greco, who, along with Jen- nings, started the planning for NSO back in May.

One difference from previous years was the fact that this year’s NSO was

completely free of charge for all incoming new stu- dents, quite the change from the $55 registration fee of previous years.

“We felt that in past years the cost didn’t give all

students the opportunity to

participate in NSO,” said Greco. “Students already have to pay 4,000-5,000 dollars to attend university, why should they shell out another $55 to be welcomed to the university?”

NSO Team Captain, Nicole Lane, thought that having NSO as a free event was a good idea in theory, however offering it at no cost to students did have a downside. “Some students are just going to come and get the free stuff and

not show up to any of the events, which means the teams end up being un- even.” Lane expressed that perhaps this problem could be solved for next year.

Gillian MacDonald, a first year student who attended many of the events, thought NSO was a success and was grateful for the opportuni- ties it had given her. “I feel like a part of the university now,” she said.

Team Captain, Robbie Saada, also believed that this year’s NSO was a huge success. Along with the events being free to students, the benefit to this year’s NSO was that back- up plans had already been taken care of- such was the

PANTHER POST

case for the Beach Blast, which had to be replaced with glow mini golf due to poor weather. “Last year when plans got canceled there was nothing to do. Students got so bored that they ended up leaving,” said Saada.

Greco hopes that all the students that participated in NSO had a good time. “IT strongly encourage anyone interested in being leaders next year, to do so. Other than that, welcome to UPEI, and if you see me on cam- pus, say hi!”