SOCORRO, N.M. – New Mexico Tech moved the four new student orientation sessions to an online format for summer 2020, with the first event turning out to be a rousing success.

More than 100 incoming freshmen and their parents joined various meetings, tours, and information sessions via Zoom. Students learned about financial aid, residential life, and met with academic advisors.

The Admission Office website says, “While we will miss seeing you in person, we are quickly putting together an online program for our summer orientations. We know you are excited to get started, and we are excited to help you transition to NMT.”

Admission Director Tony Ortiz said the event was a learning experience for NMT faculty and staff, but was overall a smooth transition to a cybernetic environment.

“Everyone really stepped up,” Ortiz said. “Iver Davidson at ITC suggested we run it through Canvas and that worked very well. We had 103 students participating and it went better than we hoped for.”

Students who participate in orientation have already been accepted and admitted to NMT. Among other things, students enroll in classes during orientation.

New Techies learned about the Student Services offices from 10 a.m. to noon, mostly via pre-recorded video messages. In the afternoon, they had live individual meetings with academic advisors and selected their classes for the fall 2020 semester.

Moving orientation to an online format is just one of many accommodations NMT is making to ensure the safest possible environment on campus.

Acting Vice President of Student Life Dr. Peter Phaiah said the pandemic has created a variety of challenges for NMT in both academics and student life. Currently, the dormitories will be single occupancy per room, with some exceptions.

West Hall had been intended to be off-line this year for renovations and to house Brown Hall staff during renovations of Brown Hall. That project has been postponed a year and West Hall will be used for dormitory space.

Ortiz said he fielded no questions from new recruits or their parents about the pandemic and NMT’s response. The discussions were exclusively about academics and getting enrolled.

The next two online orientations will be June 19 and July 17. The fourth and final orientation will be in August. Ortiz said already more than 60 incoming students have signed up for the June 19 event.

– NMT –