Think of yourselves as having graduated from Google and Wikipedia. Your teachers at Boston College will have high expectations and you will need powerful tools,” reference librarian Syed Khan told a group of 100 incoming freshmen on June 24, the third and final day of their orientation program. During an informal session with members of the Class of 2012 in the Connors Family Learning Center, he described the library’s resources, which include some 500 databases.
Incoming freshmen and transfer students must attend one of the seven orientation programs the University offers throughout the summer. In addition to meeting students, faculty, and administrators, they tour the campus, live for three days in a residence hall, plan their academic programs with faculty advisors, and register for first-semester courses. A concurrent session is offered for parents and guardians. Orientation is one element of the University’s First Year Experience, which includes a weekend retreat, elective courses designed to help newcomers “reflect on their lives as students,” and the Conversations in the First Year program, in which incoming freshmen are assigned to read a book (this year it is The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer) that provides a theme for study and conversation at the First Year Academic Convocation held during fall semester.