Smooth moves: New Ducks begin their UO journey in coordinated dorm move-in

The roads and walkways of the University of Oregon were lively once again with the first big move-in day Thursday.

New students, families and volunteers bustled around in an organized system, pushing cardboard boxes on wheels filled with students' belongings to their designated dormitories.

For students, it's a day of excitement and nerves. For parents, it's a bittersweet experience.

Sam Erickson, an incoming freshman from Portland studying business administration, is a third-generation Duck, following his parents and grandparents. Sam Erickson said he always wanted to attend UO.

His mother, Sarah Erickson who grew up in Eugene, said the process of moving her son in brought back memories of when she did the same as a freshman in 1994. However, she's glad he's able to have his own experience outside of expectations set by their family.

"It's a lot of remembering, but then there's also a lot of this is his experience," Sarah Erickson said. "It's super awesome for him to have this experience. It's just different than what my experience was. It still feels really good to know that he knows the community, he grew up going to Ducks games."

Aside from longtime devoted Ducks, move-in day also brought many out-of-state students.

Maddi Coultrap, an incoming freshman studying architecture, and her parents drove from Idaho to bring her to campus.

This was only Coultrap's second time in Eugene. Her first visit to UO was when she was 7. Her mom took a photo of her on UO's campus. They never expected that 10 years later, she would be moving in.

"I have a picture of me and my mom here when I was 7, just completely oblivious," Coultrap said. "Now we're gonna recreate it."

Coultrap said she was attracted to UO's five-year accelerated architecture program.

"I love all the greenery and things to do around," Coultrap said. "I kind of just fell in love with it."

Coultrap's mom, Ronda Marchica, said she was surprised by how calm and simple the move-in process went Thursday.

Cruz Fieck, an incoming freshman from the Bay Area in California, and her family were also impressed by how easy it was to get her belongings unloaded. Cruz Fieck's mother, Gladys Fieck, said this was the smoothest move-in process she's ever experienced.

Cruz Fieck is the second of her siblings to go to college, and compared to her sister's move to the University of California at San Diego in 2020, the UO move-in was a breeze, her mom said.

Still, as Gladys Fieck helped her daughter unpack in her dorm room in Hamilton Hall, she described her mixed emotions.

"It hasn't hit me yet," Gladys Fieck said. "I think just getting her in and the excitement of being in a school of her choice with a lot of school spirit – I'm excited. But I think when it comes time to say goodbye, the tears will start."

Efficient move-in process

In past years, move-in has been a one-day event. With an especially hectic move-in process last year that led to infamous traffic jams all around the university, the college tried out some new strategies this year.

"We had a variety of different groups do early moving," said Jenn Sims, assistant director in Strategic Communications and Marketing in UO's Student Services & Enrollment Management department. "We've had several students already moving in, and then we split move in over two days, which is fantastic. That really should mitigate those traffic concerns that we had."

Additionally, UO outsourced University and Student Services, a company that specializes in college move-ins, which managed much of the loading and unloading process.

USS employees and "Unpack the Quack" student and faculty volunteers unloaded cars, pushed carts and helped families bring luggage into dorm rooms.

With the meticulous planning that had students scheduled to arrive down to a 20-minute margin, the day was viewed largely efficient.

Sam Lao, an incoming freshman from San Jose, California, said the time he pulled up his car, unloaded his luggage, brought everything to his dorm room and put everything away only came out to a little over an hour.

He said the only reason it took him that long was because he had a lot of stuff.

Last year's UO's move-in day caused traffic on Franklin Avenue to be backed up all the way to Interstate 5 Glenwood exit. This year, traffic seemed almost entirely unaffected by university-bound drivers. Even on 13th Street, 15th Street and Agate Street, where the majority of unloading took place, there was little back-up.

Most cars were parked well less than 15 minutes to unload, according to UO's Director of Housing, Michael Griffel.

"We worked really hard with the community with parking and traffic, with everybody across campus," Griffel said. "Last year was an anomaly, partially because of the (COVID-19 safety) requirements. This year is going, obviously, incredibly smoothly."

Miranda Cyr reports on education for The Register-Guard. You can contact her at mcyr@registerguard.com or find her on Twitter @mirandabcyr.

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: University of Oregon class of 2026 moves into campus dorms