This year’s freshman move-in was the smoothest John Delony has seen during his time at ACU, said Delony, assistant dean for Residence Life Education and Housing. More than 800 students arrived on campus during the past week.

“All the campus partners were truly incredible,” Delony said. “This is hands down the smoothest move in I’ve ever been a part of. The students and their parents were great despite the heat.”

Students begin to move into their dorms during the summer and and continue to trickle in until a few weeks into the school year.

Tracy Wetsel, residential services coordinator, is responsible for placing each student in a bed, Delony said. She spent her summer contacting students and their parents to make arrangements for the upcoming year. Delony was impressed with her dedication to her task.

“She can’t stop with 99 percent success, because that leaves 10 students without a place to live,” Delony said. “She’s really hit it out of the park.”

About half-a-dozen departments work together to get between 800 and 1,000 students and their parents to the proper place on move-in day. The First-Year Program coordinates volunteers, ResLife handles check-in, and both Physical Resources and WWF, the university’s custodial contractor, are on hand to make repairs and clean up trash and spills. ARAMARK pitches in by providing food for the ResLife staff.

Delony said a large part of the move-in success was due to cpntributions of the returning resident assistants. More of the ResLife staff returned for a second or third year than ever before, he said.

“It is great to have a core group of student leadership who could come in and already know what was going on,” Delony said. “That’s a great foundation to build on.”

Gardner Hall is one of the halls that started a mentor program for its ResLife staff. Five of the 10 resident Assistants working in Gardner are returning juniors and seniors. Amber Bower, senior family studies major from Fort Worth, is in her second year as an R.A. and said each of the new R.A.s has been paired with an experienced R.A.

“We do a lot of training, and it helps a lot,” she said. “But there are some things that you can only learn from experience.”

Chris Perkins, freshman political science major from Abilene, moved in Aug. 21. Perkins said plenty of people were willing to help move his luggage into the dorm, but he still had some hurtles to jump before settling in.

“The most hectic part was filling out the forms,” Perkins said. “My parents weren’t there, so I had to fill out the insurance papers myself.”