I have facilitated orientation in a theater, a nursing lab classroom, and empty activity spaces, among other more routine places. If you find yourself facilitating the SEVIS check-in process in-person, the following items will be highly useful.
Laptop/tablet
In rooms without computers, a laptop or tablet is invaluable. Don’t waste time walking back and forth to bring students to and from a room with a computer. If you have the budget to invest in laptops/tablets for programming purposes, do it.
Portable scanner
Scan documents and save them right to your computer. This is a good solution for those who don’t want to separate important documents from their owners. In my experience it’s best to have students hang onto their passports. (While I-20s and DS-2019s can be reprinted fairly easily, I also recommend leaving these documents with the student. Encourage students to take these documents as seriously as their passport.)
Once at an orientation a student’s passport was missing. The last he remembered, he had given it to a staff member and never gotten it back. Of course, after checking in dozens of students the staff member could not remember for certain if she had given the passport back to the student. After hours of searching, the student went into his drawstring bag for something…and found the passport. Even though he had it the whole time, that situation would not have happened if our process did not involve collecting passports.
Campus & area maps
Make it easy on yourself when explaining how to get to places on campus by having maps on hand. Inevitably, students will ask to take it with them, so have multiple available to give out.
Another type of map to have would be a guide of useful places within walking distance or a short ride away. Think about the local: pharmacies, grocery stores, convenience stores, banks, cell phone companies, restaurants, and other stores that students might need upon arrival. For these, I usually put include the distance and the estimated walking time. Check out the example above.
WiFi instructions
College students are so lucky these days! When I studied abroad I had to buy a cheap, pay as you go phone that could only make phone calls and send text messages. I had to watch how many texts I sent so that I didn’t run out. My phone didn’t even have internet access. I was on my own when traveling, with only a paper map and the instructions from locals to get me to my destination.
Anyways, many students nowadays are going to be arriving with smartphones that have international plans, or they will opt to use a new SIM card. Either way, they’re going to have Internet capability and they’re going to ask you how to get online. Prepare a simple guide explaining how to connect to your campus internet and include the phone number and email for IT in case the student has trouble.
Refreshments
It’s going to be a long day for everyone. Some people don’t eat as soon as they wake up, but you can bet they’ll be pretty hunger a couple hours later while waiting their turn for check-in. Try to have a filling, portable, and somewhat healthy spread. Once when serving Domino’s pizza at lunch during check-in and orientation, a new student told me she hadn’t eaten anything since the airport the day before because everything was so unhealthy.
If you can get a sense of dietary restrictions beforehand, such as if students have allergies or are vegan, this will help with your order. Even with a modest budget for refreshments, it’s important to consider the needs of your students. You know that even a little bit of comfort, like a halal student being able to have a snack along with her peers, can go a long way during a stressful transition.
Semester program calendar
On the off chance that your office is one of those types that has its sh*t together before the semester even starts, this is a great way to advertise upcoming programs. This allows students to get a sense of what your office does and if they see themselves being active with the office.
Even if you don’t have a whole semester planned out, that’s okay! Have flyers of your most immediate programs, perhaps a meet & greet, to share. The idea is to drive students to your programs and get them interested in what you have to offer.
Contact info for critical offices
When students, and their parents, need to get critical things figured out right from the start you don’t want to be stuck trying to find contact information in the moment. It’s best to have that information on hand: whether its printed in your new student handbook and you can point them to the page, or you printed out a sheet of paper with key information: helpful names, phone numbers, and office numbers and buildings.
Think of these offices: Housing, card center, dining services, IT, health center, and others.
List of real addresses
A student might be living in “123 University Hall” but that is probably not an actual physical address. Since SEVIS uses Address Doctor, it will likely show and error if you enter “123 University Hall” for the student’s address. You could override it using the “override – campus housing” reason. However, if your campus has a physical address assigned to each residence hall, I recommend entering both the physical address and the hall into SEVIS. This is how I typically enter addresses
Address line 1: 987 Main St
Address line 2: University Hall #123A