<p>What you say makes perfect sense, funyet. Orientation is just a few weeks away, and having heard nothing of all these initiatives in spite of my modestly informed (ugh!) status I should’ve suspected them to be for future classes.</p>
<p>But while they don’t technically apply to my son, I do find some comfort in the fact that they confirm some of my own beliefs about involvement, living with like-minded people, etc. I’ve been preaching my “2 points of engagement” theory (my kids LOVE all my theories!! Not.) which says that, in addition to the dorm living situation, a student should engage or involve with the school in at least two additional ways, be they club sport or organization or volunteering. I tell my son that for every thing he joins he instantly has 20 new friends (OK, so I make up these numbers but you know…) who probably don’t overlap the other 20 from the other thing(s) they join. And so it grows multiplicatively.</p>
<p>I developed this theory after reflecting on my own miserable first year at another Big Ten school in the middle of the farm belt, where I involved myself in nothing and was somehow surprised to find myself having no fun. And I was a retention statistic! By spring break I had applied to another school and was gone.</p>