President John D. Simon arrived outside McClintic-Marshall shortly after Tracie Catlett, of Louisville, Kentucky (and more recently Greensboro, North Carolina) and her husband pulled up to unload their car and help settle their son, Jack, into the dorm.
Simon, enjoying one of his favorite times on campus, greeted incoming students and the scores of MOOV (Made of Our Volunteers) representatives who were on hand assisting with move-in duties, including checking in students, directing traffic, unloading cars and delivering students’ belongings to their dorm rooms. In all, more than 1,300 staff, faculty and students volunteered.
In a bit of serendipity, the Catlett family had planted a Lehigh flag on their front lawn during their son’s high school graduation party to note his university choice. Their neighbor approached to let them know that her son—Simon—was president of Lehigh and that they ought to say hello to him when they got here. They did that—and posed for photos together with him too.
“I’m excited,” said Jack, after hauling boxes into his dorm. “I’m ready to move in.”
Catlett said her son, who planned to major in product design, had liked Lehigh from the start of his college search journey. She said the interdisciplinary approach to study had appealed to him.
Outside of Drinker House, about 20 members of the fraternity Phi Kappa Theta, along with other MOOV representatives greeted students and their families with chants of “Pop that trunk!” and “Welcome to Lehigh!”
Along University Drive, MOOV representatives swarmed each car that parked in front of a dorm building. In addition to chants, and speakers providing tunes as first-year students acquired their room keys, some MOOV volunteers blared music on their cell phones as they moved items from cars to rooms, creating a festive atmosphere both inside and out.
Julie Fisher, from the Great Neck region of Long Island, New York, was impressed with the check-in procedures as she dropped off her daughter Dani Fisher ’23, her first child to attend college, outside the Centennial 1 Complex.
“Everything has been amazing, so easy, so quick and very efficient,” Julie Fisher said. “I thought mobs of people, and we thought lines. I think that's all we thought. And so far, none of that has happened.”
It wasn’t just the reception outside her daughter’s new home that Fisher enjoyed, it was the entire check-in process.
“She got a welcoming committee, too, when she walked up to Iacocca Hall [for check-in],” Fisher said. “They're all like yelling and screaming and chanting her name. It's really been so warm and upbeat.”