O-week at Rhodes University began on Monday and it is one of the most anticipated and nerve-racking times in every new student’s life. Here are a few tips to help make the transition into varsity life a little smoother, whether at Rhodes or any other university.
1. Take care of yourself
Often when people arrive at university they become engrossed in the novelty of it and get swept away into events and forget to take care of themselves. Get enough sleep. Eat breakfast. If you don’t feel safe or feel threatened in any environment leave immediately. There’s no detention in university so no one can make you do something you are uncomfortable doing.
2. Explore!
During your first week of lectures you are bound to get lost. Take a walk around campus with a few friends and explore the main areas. A few days before your lectures start, make sure you know where all your lecture venues are.
3. Be safe
Unfortunately, O-week is also known as a time when people deliberately prey on naïve first years for several reasons. Some people will go as far as making bets and games based on targeting first years. Make sure that you save all the relevant emergency numbers on your phone (E.g. Campus Protection Unit, the counselling centre, sub-wardens and wardens etc). Never go to a party alone and before you go to a party, establish some rules with your new friends such as ‘No one leaves alone’.
4. Be nice to secretaries, course coordinators and teaching assistants.
These people practically run academic departments. They know all the ins and outs of what it really takes for you to do well. Due to the nature of their jobs, they are usually overworked and unappreciated, so someone genuinely asking about their day or giving them a compliment usually does the trick.
5. Be nice to service staff
Universities cannot run without this group of people. If you are in a catered residence, going out of your way to show kindness to the dining hall staff will also work in your favour in terms of having more food on your plate. This will, unfortunately add to the dreaded “first year spread”.
6. Get involved!
Don’t be afraid to be labelled the ‘keen bean first year’. Offer your help, ask questions, get involved in your department, find out about seminars and colloquiums. This is a great way to gain career experience before you even have your first qualification! This is also a great way to make contacts for the future.
7. Reinvent yourself!
University is a chance at a clean slate. Join clubs and societies you don’t think you’ll need but have an interest in. Challenge yourself to try something new. To learn new things and to befriend people who have different backgrounds and opinions to your own.
8. Get a well-rounded education
The beauty about being at a university is not just receiving a qualification. You will not leave university the same way you entered it. Hopefully that change will be for the better. This tip is aimed particularly at non-humanities students. Make sure that you leave university knowing more about the world and people around you than you did in high school. Learn about different cultures, religions, hobbies and countries. This is important because it is efforts like these that allow people who hold intolerant beliefs, harmful stereotypes and prejudices to put real life faces, names and emotions to their harmful beliefs and that is how they are challenged and hopefully broken.
O-week can be one of the most memorable weeks of your university experience and it has the potential to set the tone for the rest of your time at university. Take care of yourself. Treat people well. Learn about the people and world around you and challenge yourself to try new things.
Written by Cindy Fumbata
