Discoveries Student Orientation Program

Collection

Identifier: U407

Staff Only

Abstract

Programming for freshmen and new student orientation began after World War II and ramped up in the early 1950s. In the Fall of 1956, DU launched the "Welcome Week" orientation program “designed to acquaint freshmen and other new students with campus life, professions, other students, and to get them started on their college career.” Student leaders called Pioneer Guides aided the orientation effort. A "Freshmen Camp" or "Frosh camp" program also began in the late 1950s as an introduction to life at DU. This camp later happened at and was thus known as the Geneva Glen program. The SOAR orientation program (Summer Orientation and Registration and later Student Orientation, Advising and Registration) began in the 1970s and lasted through at least 2003. These programs were administered by different university units.

Dates

1956-

Biographical / Historical

Institutional records at the University of Denver document student orientation functions dating back to the early twentieth century. Early references to orientation appear within academic advising, registration, and residence oversight records. These functions were primarily administered by faculty advisors, the Registrar, the Dean of Women, and later the Dean of Men. University bulletins and accreditation reports from the 1930s and 1940s reference faculty advising and registration guidance connecting students to academic expectations and institutional policies.

During the 1940s and 1950s, orientation activities became more formally associated with student personnel and student services structures. Records from this period document orientation as part of broader student personnel functions, often linked with counseling, testing, and advising services and coordinated through the Dean of Students.

From the 1960s through the 1970s, student orientation was administered within student affairs or student services divisions, with responsibility shared among offices such as Student Life, Counseling Services, and Admissions. Orientation programs during this period are referenced in connection with residence life, student activities, and first-year transition initiatives.

In the 1980s and 1990s, orientation functions were increasingly aligned with student life and undergraduate studies units, including first-year experience programs and advising offices. By the early 2000s, orientation was administered within the Student Life Division, with responsibility divided between academic resources and campus life units. Institutional planning documents from this period reference the development of structured orientation programs, including Discoveries Orientation and faculty-led initiatives associated with the first-year experience. Records across the period document the continued integration of student orientation within student services and academic transition programs.