The events put on by the college administration during Jan term enhanced the experience for first year students and gave students engaging opportunities to get out of their rooms.

For the first time, January term, or Jan term, was required for this year’s freshman class. The college planned special events for the freshmen, and ended up opening them to all ages after receiving requests to allow upperclassmen to participate as well.

Susan Hopp, dean of students, explained that attendance varied from event to event, with cooking classes filling up quickly and such a surprisingly large turnout for Craft Day that two extra supplies runs were needed. The InterACT performance troupe drew crowds of 30-75 students in each session.

Freshman Sydney Roeske said, “The events were totally worth doing and a great reason to get out of my dorm during J-term.” She added that the cooking classes were her favorite event.

Hopp said that the events were created around four main ideas: socializing, diversity and identity, service and career planning.

An anonymous freshman said she wishes there were “more events that were not lectures or school-related.” This sentiment seems to be common among freshmen, although there were fun and social-based events like the paint dance and the trip to the waterpark.

Many freshmen expressed that they appreciate the effort put into events but either had found other ways that they preferred to spend their time or were busy with class work.

Even if freshmen were not able to make it to many of the events, the opportunity to engage with each other in diverse events added a dimension to Jan-term that seems to have been missing in past years.

Hopp says that they will fine-tune the programming for next year based on student input and what went well this year, and encouraged students to contact the administration with any feedback.