July 1, 2009 – News & Views

The new orientation logo that displays this year’s theme: ‘Get Rooted.’ The logo can be seen on the OWU orientation Twitter account.

Image courtesy of Trevor Hawley ’10

OWU Orientation Hits the Web
Twitter account allows first-year students to stay virtually connected to orientation

Trevor Hawley ’10, the creator of the OWU orientation program Twitter account.

Photo courtesy of Trevor Hawley ’10

Trevor Hawley ’10, an orientation team leader, came up with the idea to incorporate Twitter into orientation.

“We want to keep a real-time update on orientation planning throughout the summer and provide updated events and reminders for students throughout orientation in August,” Hawley says.

Orientation team members wanted to make Twitter well-known to the incoming first-year students, so they put a link to the Twitter account in an e-mail sent to the entire freshman class. There also is a link on two Facebook groups: “Ohio Wesleyan Class of 2013” and “Orientation: Get Rooted. Ohio Wesleyan Class of 2013.”

Twitter also is going to be the first and only place to announce the entertainment coming to campus Thursday and Saturday nights during orientation. Both groups/performers are nationally known and are on TV, Hawley says.

He says the reason for releasing the information on Twitter only is to build support for the orientation account.

“Once we hit 55 followers, we’ll release who’s coming to campus on Saturday,” Hawley says. “Once we hit 70 followers, we’ll release who’s coming on Thursday as the headliner.”

Not only will the Twitter account provide information and constant updates about orientation, it also will post fun facts about Ohio Wesleyan and the incoming freshman class.

“As the incoming class solidifies later in the summer, we are hoping that the Office of Admission will provide us with facts and statistics about the incoming class,” Hawley says.

The Office of Admission has its own Twitter account, but staff members are coordinating with Hawley and the orientation Twitter account this summer, says Dana Behum, assistant director of admission.

“We are happy to provide any facts about our amazing incoming Class of 2013,” Behum says. “We are looking forward to collaborating with Trevor and the OWU orientation Twitter account in any way that we can. We are encouraging our incoming class to follow the orientation Twitter account to keep them enthusiastic and excited for OWU this fall.”

When Hawley first signed up for an orientation Twitter account, OWU was one of 10 universities that had its student orientation program on Twitter. Now, two months later, that number has about doubled.

“Twitter is slowly starting to pick up, and many of the other schools using it for orientation are very large, major universities,” Hawley says, naming Boston University, Clemson University, and the University of South Florida. “Given our size and the fact that we’re a liberal arts school, we’re groundbreakers.”

You can follow OWU’s orientation Twitter account.

– Emily Hastings ’10