{"id":46545,"date":"2019-08-16T07:54:10","date_gmt":"2019-08-16T12:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=46545"},"modified":"2019-08-16T09:22:20","modified_gmt":"2019-08-16T14:22:20","slug":"%ef%bb%bffhsu-after-the-storm-moving-in-and-pitching-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=46545","title":{"rendered":"\ufeffFHSU after the storm: Moving in and pitching in"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Diane Gasper-O\u2019Brien <\/strong>
<\/strong> University Relations and Marketing <\/em>
Wednesday was move-in day for freshman students in the learning communities at Fort Hays State University.

They got a taste of the culture of their new home-away-from-home in a hurry.

A learning community is a group of first-year students who share common interests, take classes together, live on the same floor in a residence hall and participate in activities together throughout the year.

As they drove up to Victor E. Village \u2013 the residence hall that houses those in the learning communities \u2013 they were greeted by numerous student volunteers who not only helped them unload their vehicle but carried in their belongings as well.

\u201cThat was unbelievable,\u201d said Jeff Wick from Wamego, whose son, Jacob, is a member of the Everybody\u2019s Business Community. \u201cIt took only one trip to get everything in. It was fantastic having that one extra step to take the stress out of moving in.\u201d

Wick also was impressed with how quickly university personnel had cleaned up after a thunderstorm with wind gusts of 80-plus mph blew through Hays the night before.

Quick reaction to an emergency was all in a day\u2019s work for several FHSU departments.

Dean Dreiling, one of the grounds supervisors, arrived on campus about 9 p.m. Tuesday after the storm and, along with three other employees of the grounds\/greenhouse department, began clearing tree branches from the streets and sidewalks.

\u201cA lot of us have been here for a long time, and everybody knows where to head,\u201d said Dreiling, who has been with FHSU for 21 years.

Clean-up crews returned to work at 7 a.m. Wednesday and worked for two days to get campus back to normal.

\u201cIt\u2019s really a team effort,\u201d he said. \u201cI see it around here a lot. All the different departments work so well together, and it sure makes it enjoyable to work here.\u201d

The wind blew in a wall in the Akers Energy Center, knocking over some electrical gear. Power plant employees and others came to campus to help Keith Dreher, director of energy management, remove the debris. A temporary wall is being installed until total damage is assessed.

\u201cThere were guys there from the power plant, physical plant, grounds, maintenance, construction crew, others,\u201d Dreher said. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing the response you get when you\u2019re trying to get things back in order, the people you have show up to help.\u201d
It was business as usual when students and their parents arrived on campus early Wednesday morning. On Thursday, more freshmen moved into other residence halls.

The Wicks came to Hays Monday night and got a reminder of what summer weather in western Kansas can be like. The family lived in Hays for several years before moving to Wamego six years ago.

\u201cThe storm brought back some memories of when we lived here,\u201d Wick said, \u201cand so did coming to campus \u2013 great memories, and we look forward to visiting often.\u201d

Bruce and Wendy Schultz from Hutchinson also were taking a trip down memory lane while moving their daughter, Ashton, into the Imaging With Tiger Pride Community on the second floor.

The Schultzes are both graduates of FHSU and are pleased that their second daughter decided to attend their alma mater. They also were pleasantly surprised with the extra help they received.

A pair of freshmen witnessed that type of support first-hand the night of the thunderstorm.

Some students already moved into Victor E. Village as part of the Golden Beginnings Program for new first-year students. They can move into their residence hall a few days before the rest of the students, giving them another opportunity to network with their peers.

Tuesday\u2019s storm knocked out power to the university, which relied on back-up generators for several hours. Students in Victor E. Village gathered on the first floor of the building until the storm passed.

\u201cPeople who were calm were helping everyone, like me, who weren\u2019t so calm,\u201d said Kristen Reed from Fort Collins, Colo. \u201cWe are part of a Learning Community here, and it was literally  a community effort (Tuesday).\u201d

Reed is an elementary education major and part of the Opportunity through Education Community.

Reed admitted being visibly shook up by the severity of the storm, but Lauren Haselhorst from Kinsley, about an hour from Hays, took it all in stride.

\u201cWe\u2019ve had a tornado just 300 yards away from our house before, so I\u2019m kind of used to this, being from this part of the state,\u201d said Haselhorst, who is part of Imaging with Tiger Pride.

Nonetheless, she was still impressed with the collaborative effort it took to prepare for the huge task of welcoming hundreds of students to campus.

\u201cIt was neat to see everyone working together to get everything ready for the big move-in,\u201d she said.

And she did mean everyone. Even Dr. Tisa Mason, the university\u2019s president, helped students move in and carried bags into McMindes Hall Thursday morning.

Activities for first-year students will continue for the next 40 days. Classes will begin Monday.

Even before she started her first college class, Reed was convinced she made the right choice where to attend college. After graduating with 600 classmates in her Colorado high school, Reed wanted to attend a regional out-of-state college where she could play softball and pursue a degree in education.

Fort Hays State proved to be the right fit.

\u201cI came here for a campus visit my junior year,\u201d Reed said, \u201cand I knew then that this is it. This is where I want to be.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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