DEPOK – Undergraduate study program of Communication Sciences of the University of Indonesia and the UI Communication Sciences Student Association (HMIK) again held orientation activity for the new students. The series of Orientation Weeks or O’Weeks activities that began on August 26, 2022 are intended as a means of introduction for 182 new students who join as members of the UI Communication Sciences family.
After two years of the Covid-19 pandemic, O’Weeks was finally held face-to-face again. The hope is that O’Weeks can be a comfortable, active, and fun place for new students in getting to know life as a UI Communication Sciences student. “Like a family,” said the Chief Executive of O’Weeks 2022, Hanna Serevina Sinaga, in her remarks on O’Weeks 2022 website and Instagram.
However, in practice, organizing events for 182 new reaped various challenges for the class of 2020 who had their turn to organize O’Weeks. Not only did they have to adjust to organizing a face-to-face orientation that they had never experienced. However, the organizers also needed to spend more energy organising, disciplining, and caring for the new students, who were 65.5% more than their class.
Infographic Comparing the Number of Communication sciences Students at the University of Indonesia for the Class of 2020-2022. Design and text by: Nathania S. Alexandra..
O’Weeks 2022 Chief Evaluator Grasinove Reka Auditama, often called Inove, shared administrative difficulties at the beginning of the event. “A lot of data is not synchronized,” said the 2020 Communication Sciences student specialising in public relations when meeting at the Communication Building on Friday (23/9/2022). According to Inove, the reference data obtained from the Student Affairs of the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences was incomplete. “So there are only 180 people in the data,” he said.
New students line up before attending the College Student Starter Kit (CSSK) O’Weeks 2022 event at Building C, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, University of Indonesia, Depok, September 3, 2022. O’Weeks Committee documentation.
The O’Weeks committee admitted that they were struggling to find the names of students who were not registered. This difficulty was compounded by some new students who immediately entered the UI Communication sciences class of 2022 chat group on LINE without reporting themselves for administration. “It’s difficult to nurture them too,” said Inove.
In addition to the difficulty of managing a large number of students, embracing fellow organizers with a total of 99 people was also a challenge. “Because there are too many divisions, we don’t feel embraced,” said Inove. As a result, fellow organizers pay less attention to the problems from other divisions. According to Inove, this was also caused by a sense of mental and physical fatigue and being overwhelmed from the organizers themselves to take care of a huge number of new students.
When we look at the attendance of new students, the organizers were also quite successful in creating a sense of responsibility and membership for the new students. The attendance of each event that has been run shows almost perfect numbers. The lowest attendance was still at 85%.
Infographic of the Presence of New Students Class of 2022 in the 2022 O’Weeks Series of Events. Design and text by: Nathania S. Alexandra
Unfortunately, some new students still feel that attending O’Weeks events is only based on formality and obligation. “And college has already started, so people’s focus is more divided, right,” said one of the O’Weeks 2022 participants, Gilbert Nathanael Merthe, known as Ibet, when met at the Communication Building on Friday (23/9/2022). In addition, he and his friends in the class of 2022 felt quite satisfied to be animated by the previous series of faculty-level orientations.
Ibet also gave the committee an evaluation on creating the event’s atmosphere. “Sometimes, they can’t distinguish when to be serious and when to joke,” he said. However, Ibet feels this goes back to the difficulty of handling many participants. Clear and easy-to-follow rules are not enough to control the event’s atmosphere for an audience of 182 people.
The committee distributed food to O’Weeks 2022 participants at the College Student Starter Kit (CSSK) event at Auditorium Building C, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, University of Indonesia, Depok, September 3, 2022. O’Weeks Committee Documentation.
Despite facing various challenges, O’Weeks is credited with assisting the new students connect with their batch peers. “The fun of it is, meeting lots of new friends,” said Ibet.
Ibet felt that connecting with 182 people in a short time seems impossible. But at least, he added, each new student can get to know at least one person connecting from each of the circles in their class. “One of the circles (is) someone I know,” said Ibet. He feels that the O’Weeks event can especially help new students who are not good at socializing.
