At Rice U., a Brawny Welcome for Freshmen</p>
<p>By KATHERINE MANGAN
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<p>At Rice U., a Brawny Welcome for Freshmen</p>
<pre><code>* Slide Show: Plenty of Helping Hands on Move-In Day
</code></pre>
<p>Related Stories From The Chronicle</p>
<p>Slide Show: Plenty of Helping Hands on Move-In Day</p>
<p>Houston</p>
<p>At 9 o’clock on a sultry mid-August morning, Rebba Moore’s heart is racing as her family pulls up in front of the residence hall where she will spend her freshman year. Her nerves give way to delight when a half-dozen students rush toward her car, shouting her name and welcoming her to Rice University.</p>
<p>Rock music blares over loudspeakers and a few students dance or jam with air guitars as a couple of football players jog over to help the Moores unpack after their 1,200-mile drive from Minneapolis.</p>
<p>At campuses across the country, freshmen are moving in and reluctant parents are moving on. But few enjoy the kind of welcome Rice provides for its 790 incoming freshmen.</p>
<p>This past Sunday’s move-in started a week of celebration and bonding with upperclassmen who had familiarized themselves with the freshmen over the summer by quizzing one another with flashcards containing biographical information and photos. Two or three upperclassmen have been assigned as advisers to groups of seven or eight freshmen.</p>
<p>The students compete to see who will be the first to identify their advisees as they pull up to the curb.</p>
<p>“The reception is awesome,” Rebba’s father, Clyde Moore says as his personal moving crew gets to work. “It makes the kids feel welcome. This really pushes the concept of college as a family.”</p>
<p>Bringing Athletes and Nonathletes Together</p>
<p>The move-in crew, which includes the head football coach, a few of his players, and some other students, trudges up four flights of stairs with Ms. Moore’s family, carrying boxes and suitcases to her room.</p>
<p>Laden with her mattress pad and a red mesh bag containing her iron, paper towels, and cleaning supplies, the coach, David Bailiff, says he encourages all of his players to participate.</p>
<p>“At Rice we want these young men to be involved in all aspects of campus life,” he says. Helping freshmen to move in and cultivating closer bonds with nonathletes, he adds, “is a formula for success.”</p>
<p>When a truck arrives at the dorm with a green upholstered sofa, one of the athletes hoists it over his shoulder and carries it into the building. The coach says he has warned the players not to get carried away and injure themselves.</p>
<p>“A couple of my players showed up in open-toed shoes, and I had to send them back,” he says. “And I told the quarterback not to hurt his handno heavy lifting for him.”</p>
<p>Bencil Q. Smith, a senior safety on the team, has moved several students in by late morning. “It makes it a lot more warm and welcoming for them,” he says.</p>
<p>“Moving by yourself is always a hassle,” agrees his teammate and fellow safety, Andrew V. Sendejo. “It’s nice to meet the freshmen and build relationships with them. We support them, and they support us.”</p>
<p>Robin Forman, dean of undergraduates, says Rice furthers that message by holding a pep rally in the football stadium to cheer on the entire university, not just the football team. “We’re changing the perception that football is distinct from everything else we’re doing here,” he says.</p>
<p>On Sunday, he roved among the residence halls, greeting students and parents.</p>
<p>Ms. Moore says that while the move-in went much more smoothly than she expected, the reality of being in college hasn’t sunk in. “It really hasn’t hit me yet,” she says. “I’m excited and nervous.”</p>
<p>“Some colleges have Hell Week for freshmen,” she notes, referring to a tradition at her older brother’s military college, the Citadel, in which new arrivals endure verbal taunts from upperclassmen. At Rice “you get the feeling everyone is really happy you’re here.”</p>
<p>U-Hauls and Caravans to Unload</p>
<p>Across the campus, on the South Quad, a car drives up, students peer in, and a shout rings out.</p>
<p>“Tracy, you have a boy!” one adviser yells to another, who bounds out to greet one of the freshmen she’ll be sharing a dorm with and helping acclimate to campus life.</p>
<p>Grace Palmer, who has just arrived from Fort Worth, initially felt embarrassed by her heavy load. “We brought a U-Haul, and I didn’t see anyone else with so much stuff,” she says. “I thought they’re going to think I’m insane.”</p>
<p>She needn’t have worried. Her roommate, Ariele Gold, and her parents drive up in two vehicles: a large SUV and a truck that includes, among other things, a mattress and a microwave oven.</p>
<p>Ariele’s mother, Marjorie Gold, hops out and takes charge. “There are football players around here,” she exclaims. “Get a team!”</p>
<p>Mr. Sendejo jogs over. “Let’s see if you’re as strong as you look,” she jokes as he drags out the mattress.</p>
<p>While the upperclass students finish moving the boxes, the freshmen are escorted to the adjacent homes of the “faculty masters,” tenured faculty members who serve as advisers in each of the nine residential colleges, which house freshmen and upperclassmen.</p>
<p>There the new students pick up T-shirts in the colors of their colleges, get their room keys, and mingle with faculty members and classmates.</p>
<p>Parting With Families</p>
<p>By 11:30 a.m., the freshmen are moved in, and lunch is served in the dining hall of each of the colleges. In one, students perform a skit lampooning college-student stereotypes, including engineering geeks, jocks, insufferable intellectuals, and sloppy slackers.</p>
<p>Then it’s time for family goodbyes.</p>
<p>Andrew McDermott, a junior who serves as one of the orientation-week coordinators, says they try to make the partings as quick and painless as possible. “We take the Band-Aid approach: Rip it right off,” he says. Still, it isn’t going to be easy.</p>
<p>At 12:45 p.m., a coordinator announces that the new students will leave for their small-group orientation sessions in 15 minutes.</p>
<p>A murmur ripples through the crowd, and parents start reaching for tissues and video cameras.</p>
<p>Rob Hoffman, who has driven with his family from Franklin Lakes, N.J., hugs his 9-year-old brother, who has buried his head in his big brother’s lap and is crying.</p>
<p>When students are finally escorted out with their orientation groups, parents go to information sessions, and the campus health center offers them free massages. Despite gentle nudging in the direction of their cars, some can’t yet bring themselves to leave.</p>
<p>“I’ve heard stories of parents hiding in bushes to get a last glimpse of their kids,” Mr. McDermott says. “And you always get the ones who insist they have some last-minute item their student forgot, like a special pillow, that they have to deliver to them personally.”</p>
<p>A Color-Coded Sense of Place</p>
<p>The following night, a steady drizzle has forced the university to move the freshman barbecue from the home of President David W. Leebron to the Student Center.</p>
<p>The president, wearing black jeans and cowboy boots, shouts to make himself heard over the pulsing music that has students dancing in the front of the dining hall. The freshmen are wearing their residential-college T-shirts.</p>
<p>“Two weeks from now, when I ask a student where he’s from, he’s likely to say from Sid Rich or Wiess instead of his hometown,” Mr. Leebron says, referring to the shorthand names of two of the colleges.</p>
<p>Just one day has passed since the students moved in, but already those loyalties are starting to show. When dinner is over, a student jumps on a table and shouts a rallying cry for his college. His dorm mates join in. Students from the other colleges respond with their own chants, and the groups do their best to drown one another out.</p>
<p>Laughing, they head back to their rooms in clusters of bright green, purple, and gold T-shirts to get ready for another day of becoming Rice freshmen.