Students may have to take special measures to accommodate about 2,000 high school and transfer students who will be on campus for enrollment services’ Spring Discovery Day today.
The Colvard Union area is expected to be more congested than usual, said Vic Nickels, director of parking services. Parking Services plans to ticket vehicles with decals that are parked incorrectly, but visitors have less chances of being penalized.
Nickels suggested that students park by the Humphrey Coliseum to reduce congestion in the center of campus.
“It would really help out if they would park by The Hump and ride the shuttles to their classes,” Nickels said.
Parking services will be more lenient on tickets for visitors, but students should not expect such leniency, Nickels said.
“We are going to be more lenient to visitors because there will be so many people on campus,” Nickels said. “We will still be ticketing staff, resident and day student parking violations, though.”
Campus businesses are also making arrangements to accommodate high numbers of visitors.
Shirley Patton, manager of the Wendy’s franchise in The Union, said that Wendy’s will prepare extra food to make up for the visitors.
“We have ordered more products, and we are making sure that we have a full staff,” Patton said. “We have prepared for the day, and we look forward to it and hope it goes well.”
Discovery Day is important to campus recruiting, said associate director of enrollment services Bryan Nesbit.
“Spring Discovery is a way for the students who might want to come her to get an in-depth view of the university,” Nesbit said.
Participating students have an opportunity to take exams through various programs in the College of Arts and Sciences as an academic competition.
The available competitions will be in art, chemistry, foreign languages, history, math and physics. Competing students will have a chance to gain college credits.
A college fair in The Union will accompany the academic competition. Each college within the university and several student organizations will be represented at the fair.
Prospective students will be able to tour residence halls and other places around campus during the afternoon. The day will conclude with an award ceremony for students who participated in the morning competitions.