Volunteers smooth campus arrival

Newark Mayor Vance Funk, an Arrival Survival Team member, helps guide new students and families arriving on campus.

4:02 p.m., Aug. 30, 2004--Members of the Class of 2008 got a warm welcome Saturday, Aug. 28, as 600 upperclass students, staff and a handful of delegates from the City of Newark volunteered their time, guidance and strength to the move-in effort.

Known as the Arrival Survival Team, the band of blue-shirted Good Samaritans braved the heat and traffic to help freshmen and their families haul duffel bags, mini-refrigerators, bikes, crates and computers across lawns and up stairs to residence halls until the last of the loot vanished from pre-designated drop-off points.

“The most important thing community members and residents of Newark can do is to get involved with the students early on, and that’s what this is all about” Newark Mayor Vance Funk, a member of the Arrival Survival Team, said.

Judging from the turnout of student volunteers, upperclassmen shared this belief as well. Rewarded with a T-shirt, a water bottle and the ability to move in early, the student volunteers willingly smoothed arrival angst with the expertise of individuals who’d been there themselves.

“I think upperclassmen really enjoy helping, because they remember what it was like for them,” Catherine Skelley, assistant director of community standards at UD’s Office of Residence Life, said.

Needless to say, the warm welcome and friendly assistance found a grateful audience. Listing a microwave, a mini-fridge and a computer as college essentials, new arrival DeNeatra Barkley, a freshman from Milford majoring in athletic training, said she was grateful for the extra arms and legs on hand at the Dickinson Complex.

“My mom and dad are here, but my sister is in California,” she said. “I wasn’t planning on making a day of this, and I’m hoping it will be over by noon. Once I get all moved in, I think things will settle down.”

Freshman Hailey Guerriero, a physics major from Lock Haven, Pa., also was glad for the help. “My parents are here, but we left at 4:30 a.m., and I stayed up last night saying good-bye to friends, so I really didn’t sleep at all.”

By late afternoon, most possessions—and their owners—were safely inside residence halls and Arrival Survival volunteers, parents and new arrivals were all calling it a day.

Funk, who wore a hat that proudly proclaimed his position as mayor, said he heard from other volunteers that new students and parents wanted to know where they could get a hat like his. When told that Funk was actually the mayor of Newark, they were extra pleased about his participation in the day.

Article by Becca Hutchinson
Photos by Greg Drew

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