More than 4,000 new UNT students settled into their new digs in the residence halls during Housing and Residence Life’s two-day Mean Green Move-In Weekend, held August 18-19. The event marks the official opening of the residence halls for the fall semester, but it also brings the campus to life as students and their families become a part of UNT.

For Mean Green Move-In Weekend, the entire UNT campus community comes together to provide volunteer assistance to residents and their families as they make the transition to living on campus. Student organizations, staff, faculty, administrators and members of the Denton community are on hand to help facilitate a speedy move-in to all of the residence halls.

“What contributes to the success of Mean Green Move-In Weekend is our volunteers,” said Eric Johnson, assistant director for residence life and leadership development. “The volunteers make the tumultuous task of moving into somewhere new easier for our students. When those students find out that it is their fellow students, members of the faculty and staff and members from around campus helping them, I think it helps welcome them into the Mean Green Family.”

“Mean Green Move-In Weekend is one of my favorite events to help at in the Division of Student Affairs,” said Stephanie Knight, director for the Center for Leadership and Service. “There is so much energy and enthusiasm on campus, and volunteers get to help make what can be a really stressful and emotional day for families and students a little less overwhelming.”

In addition to moving in, students and their families can eat in the Dining Halls, explore the University Union and obtain their ID cards and parking permits so that they have everything they need for the start of First Flight week.

By Monday morning, 81 percent of all residential students had moved into their residence halls. The remaining upper-class residential students are free to move in at their leisure.

This is the second year that the event took place over two days, following the success of last’s year format change. Students are assigned specific move-in times in order to keep traffic to a minimum.

“This seemed to be the smoothest move-in day yet,” said volunteer Steven Cobb, associate dean for administrative affairs for the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences. “After two years, I am really a fan of dividing the students into groups with different move-in times across the weekend.”

The experience seemed to be an enjoyable one for the students as well.

“A student walked up to me with her family to ask where to get her ID card, and while I am answering she had the biggest smile,” said Knight. “She put her hands up to her face and said, ‘Sorry, I can’t stop smiling. I am a transfer student, and I am just so excited to be here and show off the campus to my family.’”

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Contact: Ray Willhoft, 940-565-2464, raymond.willhoft@unt.edu