Not very long ago, freshman orientation at GW was a one-day program where students just registered for classes. That’s a far cry from the laser light shows, horse and buggy rides and casino night activities that now mark Colonial Inaugurations.
When Helen Cannaday Saulny accepted a promotion that moved her from the admissions office to being an executive associate to Senior Vice President for Student and Academic Support Services Robert Chernak in 1988, she was charged with an enormous task – revamping the weak freshman orientation program.
Chernak told Cannaday Saulny, now assistant vice president for SASS, that the orientation – called the Student Advanced Registration Program – didn’t make incoming students feel connected to the University.
“At that time we realized that for many students who came to GW, it wasn’t their first choice. When they got here they weren’t making connections,” Cannaday Saulny said. “Vice President Chernak said we really need to do more for students to get them to connect to GW.”
Cannaday Saulny said she sat down with three other representatives – one from the admissions, one from communications and creative services and one from the student activities department – to brainstorm how to reinvigorate the freshman orientation program. Colonial Inauguration was the outcome.
Cannaday Saulny is credited along with the other three representatives as being the official creators of CI, an award-winning orientation program. She was the director of the first CI, which took place in 1990.
Since then she said she has watched the program grow in magnitude from year to year, but the basic structure.
“I’d say it’s the one that’s most emulated by other schools,” Chernak said. “It’s the one often looked at when restructuring orientations.”
“What makes (CI) really special is that it is primarily student-planned and student-executed,” Chernak said. “GW students are at the forefront.”
Chernak said changes made to the program over the years have been to suit the needs of the incoming class, but the basic structure of the program has stayed the same.
“Every year is different because the needs of people coming are different,” he said, adding that this is the first year where the incoming freshmen register before attending CI.
Other changes that have been made over the years include incorporating siblings into the orientation program and adding entertainment, like the Capitol Steps comedy show.
“We wanted to help build community as soon as students are admitted,” she said. “We wanted to make it a family experience and bring in parents as well as siblings. And it worked out quite well I think.”
