Move-In: Smooth and Sunny
Coordinating the arrival of 11,377 BU students
BU Housing officials planned meticulously for last week’s Move-in, which saw thousands of students return to campus for the new school year. Even the one thing they couldn’t control—the weather—played in their favor, with sunny skies and temperatures in the 70s.
“The weather was awesome,” says Marc Robillard, executive director of housing and dining. “It could not have been better.”
BU expects to house 11,377 students on campus this year. The first to move in—just over 1,600—arrived on Monday, August 27, most of them participants in BU sports programs or the First-Year Student Outreach Project (FYSOP), which brings freshmen volunteers to campus early to work for good causes in and around Boston. Wednesday, the first day of early arrival, was the busiest day, with 2,600 students returning to residence halls. Saturday, the first official Move-in day, saw another 2,040 students arrive.
About 400 members of the Scarlet Squad, upperclassmen Move-in volunteers, helped students and their families across the Charles River Campus unload and haul gear, Robillard says.
The only hitch, he says, was when two new elevators at Rich Hall stopped working for an hour. A long line of moving carts snaked away from the West Campus residence while the elevators were repaired. The Scarlet Squad helpers handed out water to students and parents who waited patiently in the late summer sun. “Not a bad word was uttered,” Robillard notes.
Happily, the remnants of Hurricane Isaac waited until the Tuesday after Move-in to arrive, bringing high humidity and approximately two inches of rain. But by then, everyone had settled in for another year.
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