Orientation Week 2016 will be “O” so great

By Scott Strasser, August 30 2016 —

Orientation Week, a rite of passage for incoming University of Calgary students, takes place this year from September 6–9.

Often called O-Week, the annual event includes social events, workshops and transition programming for first-year students.

The Leadership and Student Engagement office coordinates O-Week, with help from other U of C departments. LSE office manager Erin Kaipainen said O-Week is about supporting student success — academically and otherwise.

“Not just academic success, but [also] personal well-being and developing a sense of community and peer support,” Kaipainen said.

O-Week begins with an induction ceremony on Tuesday, with speeches from U of C president Elizabeth Cannon, chancellor Robert Thirsk and various student leaders. The induction ceremony will also include a keynote speech from Stanford University professor Kelly McGonigal.

“Her research is all on reframing the way we think about stress,” Kaipainen said. “It really connects with the [U of C’s] mental health strategy that was launched last December and also connects with the UCalgary Strong initiative.”

Social events this year include a Much Music Video Dance Party on Tuesday, a film screening of Zoolander by the SU on Wednesday and the UCalgary Strong Carnival on Thursday.

According to Kaipainen, More than 300 upper-year students will volunteer as O-Week leaders. As of August 29, 3,610 students have registered to take part. Kaipainen said the LSE office hopes to break last year’s record of just over 4,000 participants.

As always, a marquee event of O-Week is the Dinos football team’s season home opener at McMahon Stadium. Known as “KickOff,” the Sept. 9 event includes a tailgate party before the game, with free sausages or veggie burgers for the first 2,000 attendees.

A previous version of this story said the induction ceremony takes place on September 5. It actually occurs on September 6. The Gauntlet apologizes to our readers for this error.