Extending a welcome

Jeff Rodenhizer, housing office assistant, wants to help—just ask him. (Nick Pearce Photo)

Can I get to the Chemistry Building without getting wet? When is Shinerama? Is this where I get my U-Pass?

For the second year in a row, Student Services will operate its Ask Me! program, campaign runs from Monday, Aug. 25 and throughout the month of September. It’s a friendly, folksy campaign aimed at making it easier for students new to Dalhousie to approach staff and faculty with their questions. Program volunteers can be identified by their green, square Ask Me! buttons.

“It can be intimidating when you first arrive on campus, especially if you’re not familiar with Halifax,” says Melissa MacKay, Service and Office Manager for Student Community Services at Dalhousie. “We want Dalhousie to be as welcoming as possible for our students.”

So far more than 1,200 volunteers have signed on. Dal staffers and faculty members who’d still like to participate can fill in the online form or contact Ms. MacKay at 494-3365 for more information.

“Ninety per cent of the questions people got last year were basically, ‘how do I get there from here?’” says Ms. MacKay.

Volunteers can brush up on their Dal knowledge by perusing the Ask Me! booklet and the campus map (PDF).

New this year will be Ask Me! Central, a tent pitched outside of the Killam Library which will be staffed with volunteers for the first week of September.

Another new facet of the campaign is Student Services’ Welcome Website, a one-stop site contained within myguide.dal.ca. The site contains details of special events happening in late August and September, including the International Student Orientation, the Induction Ceremony (the university’s formal welcome ceremony), tours and activities run by individual departments and schools. There’s a page that explains Dal’s lingo, in case you’re wondering who the heck George Munro was and what the Tiger Patrol does, and another with a checklist of what to do those first few days on campus.

“All of these events were already happening but there was no central spot to find out about them,” says Lisa MacLean, communications officer with Student Services.