President Merrilll J. Bateman and others provide an overview of BYU’s academic, spiritual, and cultural opportunities.
THOUSANDS of new students stepped onto the BYU campus this fall, seeking an individualized academic, spiritual, and cultural experience. To help them “soar to success at BYU,” a virtual orientation CD is sent to all new students entering the university during the 2001–2002 registration periods.
The media-rich interactive program begins with a personal welcome from President Merrill J. Bateman. Then a variety of personalities, including Theatre and Media Arts chair Robert A. Nelson and BYU student body officers Andria P. Uale, ’02, and Matthew G. Blackner, ’02, guide students on a winter olympic-themed campus tour, complete with fanfare and swirling snowflakes.
The CD, accessible to both PC and Mac users, contains a campus map, quick-loading audio and video samples, 3-D panoramas, and links to virtually every Web site related to BYU. Beyond its exhaustive coverage of physical resources, the disc also offers glimpses into student wards, devotionals, musical productions, and teaching philosophies. A printed orientation document entitled Beginning BYU accompanies the virtual orientation CD.
Gary L. Kramer, ’70, associate dean of Admissions and Records, emphasizes that “over 75 percent of our freshman students come from outside the state of Utah.” This program acquaints distant students with the BYU community before they arrive on campus, giving them “a chance to ‘feel,’ ‘touch,’ ‘see,’ and ‘hear’ about the very bestBYU has to offer.”