MISSOULA — The University of Montana welcomed around 1,800 students to the campus dorms in Missoula on Monday.
It was all hands on deck getting the class of 2029 into their new digs.
"I think, was it the website that matched us? Yeah, yeah. Because we filled out the survey online and then they just matched us and we just started emailing," roommates Brooks Whitman and Chloe Archuleta told MTN.
There's nothing like meeting your college roommate for the first time in person after months of online contact.
"We both really like the outdoors like hiking, skiing, snowboarding, and just like all that kind of stuff. We're going on a rafting trip next week together, too and then we're going to see the Beach Boys, too," Whitman and Archuleta detailed.
It's also a lot of work setting up the place you'll call home on campus for the next year.
Check out freshmen moving into UM's dorms on Monday:
"I brought a toolbox and we've used it with a lot of stuff, a little toolbox. The fans, yeah, because it was really hot in there," Whitman and Archuleta shared.
From the ROTC to sororities and fraternities to campus ministries, current Griz were eager to lend a helping hand to the freshman class.
"The parents come here with like truckloads of stuff expecting it to be just complete chaos, hours of loading in and some people we get in their dorms in 5 minutes and just the relief on their parents' face," Resonate Campus Ministry moving crew member Hannah Marinkovic said.
Meeting upperclassmen gives the upper hand to freshmen looking for connections.
"That's like really the big goal for us," Marinkovic noted. "To watch freshmen who might not be great socially talking to people to just instantly make a bunch of friends just from moving into their dorm and they have someone to connect to, text, talk to, for their first week on campus to get them acclimated," she continued.
For students and parents alike, move-in day brings the whole spectrum of emotions, especially first-day jitters.
"There's that fear factor, right? We're gonna be 2,500 miles away. It's like he's on his own and but you know he's an independent kid," Kevin Gleichauf said while helping load his stepson's moving bins.
With the nerves also comes excitement for the next chapter. Gleichauf says the University of Montana is the perfect environment for his stepson's personal growth, even while it's far away from home in New York.
"I'm so thrilled for him and so happy for him. I want him to embrace these four years. I think they're it's gonna be incredible for him," Gleichauf said.
