Welcome to the incoming class! Behold Syracuse University, the land of the shitty-weather and home of an even shittier football team. Make campus your oasis, and before classes start, hit up the orientation events that our precious tuition money is paying for. (Seriously, attend them. I’m paying $50,000 for you to get free food in the dome so you better enjoy it.)

Check out the breakdown of the orientation events for convenience in choosing which events you attend this week!

Do attend:

Picture I.D. Cards Issued
Sorry to say, you genuinely need to hit this one up to get your SUID. Why?  Because it gives you access to residence halls. Why should you care? Sure, you could probably always get in one way or another when you just need to get into your room, but you never want to be the freshman who’s pleading with the Shaw RSA to just use the bathroom so you don’t have to take a leak on the Shaw steps”¦.

Feel the Pulse:
Free food from Armory Square. Enough said. You do have to endure to freshmen-hazing rituals of SU by donning an orange bracelet the entire time, but Empire Brewery and Pastabilities make it all worth while. Note: Up your cool factor by taking a Connective Corridor bus back to campus instead of waiting for the scheduled busses. Not only will you save yourself the pain of waiting to be crammed onto another bus with freshman, but you will get back to campus quicker to add a 30 of Keystone to your evening. 

Do not attend:

Hendricks Chapel Ice Cream Social
As religiously apathetic as Syracuse University may claim to be, skip anything happening in Hendricks Chapel right now. Even a seemingly unbiased center for religious practices will use this opportunity to prey on the weak (you, freshmen). There will inevitably be people proselytizing, and no matter what faith you believe in, you will be condemned. Even the worthiest of ice cream socials are not worth the threat of condemnation. Consider it safe to skip.

Home to the Dome:
If you’ve never heard of it, consider yourself lucky. Home to the Dome is the crème de la crème of orientation events. Prepare to pack yourselves like sardines, alphabetized by your residence hall, branded by color-coordinated bandanas and matching orange t-shirts forever commemorating the joyous occasion of this event. Why skip it? Unless you’re intent on being thrown into a mass of orange for picture-taking or cannot wait to be serenaded by the 76 a cappella groups with which SU will present you, escape the pandemonium of overly-excited RAs and other university representatives and stay home. Start drinking while the other kids spend the two hour gap watching Otto do”¦ whatever oranges do”¦ in the dome and then be comfortably buzzed by the time they return to simply smile at their amusement of getting free t-shirts.