Southern Illinois University’s Saluki Startup begins Aug. 16 to 18, and Weeks of Welcome 2018 begins Aug. 19.

“[These events] are the ideal opportunity for [students] to have fun with other new students,” Cornè Prozesky, Interim Director at the Rec Center said. “Like when you would go away to summer camp and the first person you meet becomes your best friend for life.”

New Student Programs will be hosting Saluki basecamp from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Aug. 16 and 17. The events will have music, giveaways and from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday, a Saluki Spirit zone where students can tie-dye t-shirts and create banners for free.

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Events continue Thursday night after move in with Light up the Lake, which is a new event this year and will take place at Becker Pavilion from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. At the event, there will be music, glow sticks for the students and a range of outdoor activities, including canoeing, paddle boating, kayaking, volleyball, disc golf, spike ball, bags and more.

Friday night the Saluki Startup kick-off event begins with New Student Convocation at the SIU Arena from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Afterwards a new student photo will be taken, and the night will continue at the arena with a pep rally, where students can learn the SIU fight song and cheers.

Students can then move on to Welcome Fest, where different Carbondale businesses will be handing out free samples and goodies. The event will end with fireworks and a showing of Marvel’s Black Panther with free food donated by SIU Credit Union.

On Saturday, Aug. 18, on the South lawn of the Rec Center, Meet Me on Main will take place from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. allowing new students to familiarize with local main street attractions. The event will have games, prizes and free food.

On Sunday, Aug. 19, festivities will continue with Watermelon Fest on the Morris Library front lawn, where students can participate in a variety of watermelon-based activities, such as bowling, a photo booth and a watermelon eating contest.

In the evening at Bucky’s Dome by Thompson Point, there will be an InterVarsity block party which will have free food, games and prizes.

Following Saluki Startup, will be six weeks of welcome with events spanning from Aug. 19 to Sept. 29.

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New Student Programs extended the Weeks of Welcome events to help with transitioning to college. Weeks of Welcome previously extended the first three weeks in the semester and was extended to the first six weeks.

Shannon Schroeder, New Student Programs Coordinator said the first three weeks will be similar to what they have done in the past, including Registered Student Organization fairs and events to help students get involved and meet new friends.  The second three weeks will have academics focused events. 

“The last three weeks are when [students’] classes will start to pick up and they will have that first paper due or they’ll start studying for that first test,” Schroeder said. “We’re going to do a lot of programming that will focus more on the academic side when it comes to the university.”

Schroeder said the New Student Programs Office is building a student workshop series called Saluki Starter Kit.

“[It] will have a total of 12 different workshops focusing on a variety of the things that students typically need help on or don’t know enough about,” Schroeder said.

These workshops will go over topics such as Desire to Learn, which is the university’s online service for teaching, classwork and homework, how to write an email correctly and how to manage stress.

A detailed list of Weeks of Welcome events can be found at https://bit.ly/2LP8CJW or on the My SIU app.  

Design Chief Hannah Smith can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @h_lou_s 

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