2011-2012 Academic Year Begins
For a transcript of the video below, click here.
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Aug. 22, 2011) -- For months, the University of Kentucky community has been preparing for a very special day in late August. Whether or not they have been to the campus for a few days as a visitor or for years working toward Commencement, Move In Day is the day our students come back home to us. And thousands of students, faculty, staff and community members have been committed to making that homecoming as perfect, as special as anyone could wish.
As the big day, Aug. 19, 2011, approached, thousands have doggedly envisioned, fine-tuned and implemented those plans. Some developed programming for the unique experience known as K Week, when all new freshmen discover much of what UK and Lexington have to offer. Others inspected, refurbished, cleaned, renovated and otherwise prepared our residence halls for occupancy. Still others have designed yet another semester of academic enlightenment, achievement and insight. Some re-invented some familiar dining destinations or fashioned new ones. And others conceived opportunities to capture and nurture students’ imagination and fearlessness, their commitment to social justice and community service, and their promise of a better future for themselves and the world.
On Move In Day of a new academic year at the University of Kentucky, all things seem possible – especially to freshman university President Eli Capilouto, who was obviously enjoying this new experience in the Big Blue Nation, darting here to shake the hand of a proud father, there to pat the shoulder of an anxious mother, here to hop into the back of a fully loaded pick-up truck as it rolled up to Kirwan Tower, there to clap to the beat of the UK Band’s rendition of “On, On U of K,” here to encourage an exhausted volunteer, there to marvel as a football player hefts a not-so-small refrigerator to his shoulder, here to gently question an out-of-state freshman about her major, and there to congratulate the event’s organizers.
Plans began taking shape for this Move In Day even as Move In Day 2010 was drawing to a close. Can we find a more convenient location for the hot dog stand? How can the lines at the towers’ elevators be helped to move along faster? How can we make our new freshmen and their parents feel more welcome? What new programming will enhance K Week?
As is often the case, it all comes down to the numbers.
438 carts
2,500 hand fans
4,000 popsicles
336 tables
89 chairs
409 T-shirts for volunteers
23 cattle gates
4 shuttles
229 cones
60 signs
30 tents
41 barricades
14 recycling containers
350 rain ponchos
24,000 square feet of plastic
25+ Official Student Organizations
400 employees
1 football team
1 marching band
1 new university president with his wife, Dr. Mary Lynne Capilouto
And nearly 5,000 new University of Kentucky Wildcats.
