Email
Font Resize
Tuesday through Thursday: Housing move-in
Friday: Chancellor's convocation
Aug. 23: First day of classes
Sept. 1: Tuition due
University of Colorado sophomore Chelsea Meyer has arrived early for the school year, and her do(r)mestic duties include decorating the doors of newbies.
To greet the freshmen, the resident-adviser chose pink and white paper name plates, overlaid with glitter and lace.
"Me too," joked Rick Bohm, a fellow RA who will live on a floor of guys in an engineering honors dorm.
Boulder be braced: Herds of students will return to the city this week as school starts on Aug. 23.
CU's incoming freshman class -- which officials expect to number 5,215, slightly lower than last year -- will begin moving their extra-long twin sheets and surplus supply of Ramen noodles into the dorms on Tuesday. The busiest move-in day will be Thursday, housing officials say, so expect traffic delays along Broadway.
The honeymoon period between move-in and the first day of classes brings a boom for businesses: Target on 28th Street, for example, is bussing students from the dorms to its stores Tuesday for an after-hours private shopping event.
And public-safety efforts are amplified: Police officers will saturate University Hill, and students living in neighborhoods surrounding campus might even get a knock on their door from the school's chancellor, who wants to offer safe partying tips.
The latest U.S. Census found that 100,160 people live in Boulder. CU's student population is about 30,000.
About 200 RAs arrived 11/2 weeks before the general move-in for mandatory training.
Meyer said she's made bulletin boards to showcase things to do in Boulder -- like local hikes and tours of Celestial Seasonings. She's also planning dinner parties for the young
"I want to make them cookies and gift bags," said Meyer, a business management student from Broomfield. "I just want them to have as great of a first-year experience as I had."
Bohm, a CU senior and veteran RA, said he's excited for the start of the school year and moving back into the dorms.
"It's nice to have a lot of people to come home to," he said.
Best behavior
If freshman orientation is any indicator, CU's incoming class might be one of the best-behaved.
No incoming students staying for their overnight orientation have been issued tickets for underage drinking, according to Jamal Ward, director of the Office of Student Conduct.
Last summer, 15 of the more-than-5,600 incoming freshmen and transfer students were punished for partying at orientation.
Boulder police will increase their presence on University Hill beginning Thursday. For three consecutive weekends, 14 extra officers will patrol the Hill late at night, in addition to the four full-time officers already assigned to the neighborhood.
The police department uses an "enforcing underage drinking laws" grant to cover the $6,000 in overtime pay for officers working the back-to-school operation, said city spokeswoman Sarah Huntley.
"It helps set a tone that police are here and part of the community," Huntley said. "They want to be educators as much as enforcers."
The first few weekends of the school year tend to be busy, she said, as students are out and about exploring. The police department flexes officer's hours and assignments, and doesn't allow for vacation time, during late August and early September.
City and university leaders next week will be walking through neighborhoods surrounding campus, including Goss-Grove and the Hill, reminding students to be good neighbors.
Officials including City Manager Jane Brautigam, CU-Boulder Chancellor Phil DiStefano and Athletic Director Mike Bohn will hand out smart partying tips and packs of playing cards as they encourage students to behave well in the football stands, obey trash and noise ordinances and register their parties.
During a pilot program last spring, 13 hosts registered 14 parties over a four-weekend period. Police received one noise complaint about a registered party, and there were no follow-up complaints, which signals the hosts did a good job keeping control of their parties, according to officials.
The program allows students to register their parties with police and get a heads-up about noise complaints. If a neighbor calls to complain about the party, police will give the host a call and a 20-minute warning. If police receive another complaint after 20 minutes, the host can be ticketed and fined.
Business boom?
The average college student's family will spend $616 on new clothes, furniture for dorms and apartments, school supplies and electronics, according to the National Retail Federation.
That's a couple of dollars less than last year, according to the federation, which polls back-to-school shoppers every year.
When asked how the recession will impact their back to college purchases, 34.1 percent of families responded they would buy more store-brand or generic products, up from 32.5 percent last year.
Businesses surrounding CU are ready to throw out the welcome mats for students.
At Cosmo's Pizza on the Hill, employee Connor O'Reilly said the shop will sell up to 100 pizzas to late-night Saturday crowds during the school year.
"The summer is so unpredictable," he said. "The school year is consistently busy."
Goodwill thrift shop, on Baseline Road and Broadway, opened earlier this summer, choosing the location largely because of its proximity to campus.
"We opened in June, which isn't traditionally a great time to open a store," said Jeni Anderson, a spokeswoman for Goodwill. "But we've seen record-breaking sales and donations."
Typically, Goodwill does big business in October during the change of seasons and when people are scouring for Halloween costumes, so returning students are expected to boost business even more this fall, Anderson said.
When the Boulder thrift store first opened, two Prada purses showed up in donation piles, Anderson said.
"I think there's a big population of students looking to find high-end goods," she said.
Contact Camera Staff Writer Brittany Anas at 303-473-1132 or anasb@dailycamera.com.
