June 13, 2022

Subject: Requesting Your Support for New Seawolf Welcome Week 2022

Dear Colleagues on East, West and Southampton Campuses,

This August, we are excited to welcome 4,600 new undergraduates (3,400 new first year and 1,200 new transfer students) to our Stony Brook community. Last year, we successfully launched our first New Seawolf Welcome Week (NSWW), and we are hoping to make this year's event even bigger and better, and to accomplish that, we need your help! 

Help Lead a “Choose Your Own” Program

 During NSWW, we are offering expanded programming from August 15-21 for all students prior to the first day of fall classes on Monday, August 22. A key goal of New Seawolf Welcome Week is to successfully transition our new Seawolves into our campus community. This includes offering several hundred opportunities for students to gather in small groups throughout the week to strengthen their sense of belonging and connection. These small groups -- most often an hour in length during various days and times -- are part of our "Choose Your Own" events, activities, and workshops.  

We need your involvement to make these small group opportunities a success! If you have a particular skill or interest, or want to offer an in-person or virtual workshop on a topic that helps acclimate students to Stony Brook, or just want to help lead a fun or social activity, we greatly appreciate your participation.  

If you're looking for ideas, please see this LIST.  For any events you're interested in leading (or offering with another colleague), we will provide you with a location and supplies (as needed), and a student leader on site (or virtually for remote programs) to help. New students will sign up in advance for all "Choose Your Own" small group activities.

Please click HERE to complete your interest form in leading one or more events, activities, and workshops by Monday, June 20 at 5pm. If you wish to offer the same program multiple times, you only need to fill out the form once. If you wish to offer different workshops/events, please fill out the form for each proposed workshop/event. Upon receipt of your interest form(s), the New Student Programs team will contact you to discuss and confirm dates, times, locations, and other relevant details. If you have any questions, please reach out to New Student Programs, newstudentinfo@stonybrook.edu.

 

Submit Your Events for SBU Weeks of Welcome

The fun doesn’t end there! Student Life is actively planning events for the fall semester, including SBU Weeks of Welcome (WOW), an initiative focused on welcoming new and returning Seawolves to campus, and providing engaging opportunities for involvement and community building. We are seeking your support and creativity in hosting events to welcome our new and returning students from August 22-September 25. This serves as a great platform to introduce students to your departments/areas and resources available.

We’ve compiled signature events and important dates to help inform your fall event planning. Below is a link to a Google Calendar of confirmed signature events and dates for your reference: Signature Events & Important Dates Calendar.

Once you have confirmed your events, please submit them to your SB Engaged page and select the category SBU Weeks of Welcome (WOW) and any other applicable categories. In addition, please include this graphic on your branding/marketing of these events. Please also set all event visibility to “Public” on SB Engaged. As you promote your events on social media, please use the hashtag #SBUWOW and follow and tag @sbengaged, and we will do our best to reshare. If you have any questions about how to add content to SB Engaged page, please contact studentengagement@stonybrook.edu.  

If you would like to collaborate with Student Engagement & Activities on any large scale programming, please reach out to sea_programsandtraditions@stonybrook.edu.

We appreciate your support in helping connect our Seawolves to all that Stony Brook has to offer. Thank you in advance for your support of these initiatives and for spending some time getting to know the newest members of our Stony Brook community!  

Sincerely,

Ric S. McClendon, EdD
Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students

Nakiya Findley-Drago
Director, New Student and Transition Programs

Christine Marullo
Director, Student Engagement and Activities