Behind the scenes of a new semester

Photo by Roger Winstead

Students experience the ups and downs of “Move-In Day” as they navigate the stairs of Bragaw Residence Hall on Saturday, Aug. 13.

Thirty-thousand students don’t return to campus magically. Thousands of people at the university and beyond work diligently to make the start of another semester as smooth as it can be. Following are snapshots of just a few of those individuals:

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It’s one week before the start of classes and Kevin Hannegan is scurrying around the floor of the NCSU Bookstores, trying to track down information on an order of textbooks that has yet to arrive. “This past week alone I’ve probably received 100 to 150 text requests from faculty members,” Hannegan says calmly, exhibiting grace under pressure. “It’s crunch time.”

As the Bookstores’ course materials buyer, Hannegan and his staff of four are responsible for receiving, processing, tracking and checking approximately 3,000 to 4,000 textbook orders for the entire university each semester. “A lot of people think, ‘Oh, you just order a couple of books,’ but when you have 1,600 faculty, that’s a lot of people whose orders all have to filter through the five or six people we have working in our department,” Hannegan says.

Photo by Chad Austin

Kevin Hannegan deals with up to 4,000 textbook orders before each semester at the NCSU Bookstores.

Back in his office, Hannegan takes a call from a professor who has just been assigned to teach a different section of a physics course and wants to use a different textbook. A few minutes and strokes of the keyboard later, the change is made. A short while later, an instructor stops by, wanting to be sure the store will stock enough texts to cover the anticipated enrollment of 85 students for his section. The instructor leaves satisfied.

After more calls, e-mails and drop-ins, there’s a knock on Hannegan’s door. A co-worker informs him that the textbook order he was checking into earlier will be shipped out at 10 the next morning. “Can you be sure to let the faculty member know?”

“We’re not directly teaching a class, but we play at least some part in almost every student’s education on this campus,” Hannegan said.

Figuring for food

As a student at NC State, James Raynor never thought his part-time job with University Dining would turn into a full-time career. Turns out his accounting degree and experience working with University Dining as a student now serve him well as production manager and assistant director of Fountain Dining Hall.

Raynor is responsible for managing the menus and projecting the number of meals that will be served at Fountain for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day. And he comes pretty darn close. On the Monday following students’ return to campus, Raynor forecasted 1,400 patrons for dinner. The actual number was 1,405.

“We’re hitting the numbers pretty close,” Raynor says. “It’s a combination of experience and tracking history. I look at what the counts were last year and look at what the trends are this year. We also try to keep track of things happening on campus that might affect the counts, like football and basketball games.”

Raynor has also been around long enough to know that whenever chicken is on the menu, the numbers increase. Raynor says patrons will go through about 2,000 pieces of fried chicken during a single dinner. Or between 700 to 800 pounds of popcorn chicken.

“Year in and year out our counts will increase when chicken is on the menu,” Raynor says. “Fried chicken, chicken sandwiches, popcorn chicken and chicken tenders are the most popular things we serve. It stays consistent.”

Pizza prep

Photo by Chad Austin

Sylvia’s Pizza owner Silvio Sestito sees business increase dramatically when the students return.

Pizza is a staple of a college student’s diet ... and the lifeblood of Silvio Sestito’s Hillsborough Street business, Sylvia’s Pizza.

With most students and many faculty members away from campus during the summer, Sestito estimates his sales drop 70-80 percent. So there’s no doubt whether he’s ready for the start of a new semester. “Oh yes!” he replies emphatically in his Italian accent.

To brace for the big boost in business, Sestito made the adjustments one would expect – hiring more staff, extending operating hours and decorating the store with ‘welcome back’ messages. He’s also planning to offer lunch and dinner specials and introduce new menu items consisting of traditional Italian dishes.

One thing that is going away, however, is Sestito’s summer afternoon siesta. In the summer, he says, “I take a two-hour nap in the afternoon. The first week of classes? Forget about it!”

Giving guidance

Photo by Chad Austin

Graduate student James Reed assists a student with directions on the first day of class.

New students are always in need of a little direction, and volunteers at Wolfstop information booths were happy to help students get their bearings at the start of the new semester.

As students crisscrossed the Brickyard on the first day of classes, Wolfstop volunteers Brett Locklear and James Reed, both graduate students and campus employees, took time to answer questions, point people in the right direction or simply inquire about the experience of sitting in a college classroom for the first time.

“It’s like Google for NC State,” Reed says of Wolfstop. With a table full of free literature including campus maps, bus schedules, football schedules and calendars, and a notebook filled with information such as building abbreviation codes, directions to local merchants, banks, eateries and more, Wolfstop is the campus walk-up equivalent of an online search engine. By far, the most popular search, er, request from students are a campus map.

“They don’t want to ask where to go, but they do want to ask, ‘Can I have something to tell me where to go?’” Reed says. “My gut feeling is that they need to know where a bunch of places are and not just one.”

Hunting Hollywood

Bringing actor and comedian Rob Corddry of “The Daily Show” fame to campus turned out to be a family affair.

Allison McCarn, a junior physics major from Yadkinville and chair of the Union Activity Board’s (UAB) issues and ideas committee, followed in the footsteps of her older brother and helped see his dream of bringing a recognizable celebrity to campus for a back-to-school bash become a reality. McCarn’s brother Matthew put the wheels in motion to bring Corddry to campus almost a year ago when he chaired the committee his sister now chairs.

Corddry was the featured act for the UAB’s Friday Fest celebration for students on Aug. 19. “It didn’t look like it was going to happen because our dates couldn’t match up,” McCarn said of the committee’s negotiations with Corddry’s representatives. Then in late May – roughly three months before the Friday Fest event – McCarn received confirmation that Corddry could make the show.

As chair, McCarn hopes to bring others to campus with whom students would identify.

Police presence

When it came to getting ready for fall semester, campus police went into the tank – literally. Eight volunteers braved 20 minutes each in the dunk tank during Welcome Week festivities, giving students the opportunity to knock them off their perch.

“It’s all part of our effort to get to know students better,” said Sgt. Jon Barnwell. “Even the chief took his turn.”

While campus safety is always a high priority for the campus police officers, the new fall semester includes extra duty, and not just the dunk tank. Officers are present at new student orientation to remind students about safety measures on campus. Also, as part of the liaison program, an officer is assigned to each residence hall. One of the responsibilities for liaison officers is to work with students to engrave personal items as a safeguard against theft.

“Anything (the students want engraved),” Barnwell said. “But particularly items like laptops and palm pilots – and especially bicycles.”

Hustle for housing

University Housing’s preparation for move-in weekend usually begins at the end of the spring semester with scheduled renovations, and orders for mattress and furniture. But for the residents of Berry, Becton and Bagwell – the newly renovated residence halls known as the Quad – preparations for their August arrival began in December of 2004. These three residence halls were originally built in the 1930s, and were being updated with new air conditioning, sprinkler systems and elevators.

Contractors worked through the spring and summer, and the building completed its final inspection on Tuesday, Aug. 9, one day before the first students were scheduled to arrive. Houskeeping and Housing staff worked diligently to be sure that the rooms were ready for occupation by more than 400 Quad residents, which includes students participating in the Honors Village.

In addition to the air conditioning and sprinkler upgrades, everything else in the Quad was refurbished as well: new carpet, new drywall, new paint, and new room furnishings were only part of the larger picture. Residence Advisors worked from 9 a.m. until almost 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 13, greeting residents and getting them checked in and settled.

While the residence hall portion of the Quad is complete, work remains to be done on the Honors Commons, which will hold a C-store, administrative offices for the Honors program, a computer lab, conference room and common area. The Honors Commons should be up and running in October.

Tracking transportation

Three months before move-in, Carl McGill, Melissa Watkins and the transportation staff put together a to-do list that encompasses everything from signage placement to the ordering of lunches, water and Gatorade for parking staff. Trams for the transportation of belongings for Tri-Towers residents must be scheduled. More than 50 employees must be recruited and scheduled. Parking placards and maps must be printed. Informational packets for the folks manning the lots must be created.

More than 100 special parking signs are posted and flyers are distributed around campus ahead of time to let students and staff know which lots will be used for move-in and how the traffic will be re-rerouted. This year posed a special challenge, with campus construction affecting traffic around the deck and trams passing through the Free Expression Tunnel construction area.

Move-in day begins at 4 a.m., as transportation staff check the parking lots for any illegally parked vehicles, though for the last three years, no cars have needed towing. Lot attendants arrive at 6 a.m. for a briefing, then head out to their assigned areas, where they will remain – save for the occasional bathroom and lunch breaks – for the duration of the day. Smaller operations start the week prior to move-in to help students who need to return to campus early.

This year more than 900 people checked in on Saturday than normally do. Thanks to some careful planning and the help of Greek Life and Chaplains’ Cooperative Ministry volunteers, the increased traffic was hardly noticeable, according to McGill and Watkins. “They were so helpful that we were able to turn the lots over so quickly we didn’t even notice the increased number of folks,” said Watkins.

Service to society

About 360 students and a total of 371 volunteers braved the 105-degree heat index Saturday, Aug. 20, for Service NC State, a one-time community service program for incoming freshman and interested returning students. This year’s volunteer work sites included several area elementary schools, Habitat for Humanity houses, Hillsborough Street clean-up, and work at several area service agencies – 16 sites in all.

Students were pleased with the experience.

“Everybody needs some kind of help, so why not help out when and where you can?” said Marlana Sheridan, a freshman majoring in biological sciences and a participant at Epiphany House project. “I would definitely love to come back [to Epiphany House] and volunteer, and I recommend this project to others.”

Sam Lee, a participant at Dillard Drive Elementary School project and a freshman civil engineering major said, “My RA recommended the experience and it was a great way to meet new people and to give back to the surrounding community. We worked outside trimming shrubs at Dillard Drive Elementary School. We braved the heat and had a great time.”

Service NC State is the campus version of the communitywide Service Raleigh project conducted in the spring. The students worked in groups, under the direction of Center for Student Leadership Ethics and Public Service.

“It’s a great way for students to get to know each other, get involved with the community and university, and to give something back,” said Jessica Horton, a senior in communications and a Service NC State student coordinator.

Posted Aug. 26, 2005

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