After resting up over winter break, it’s time for another great semester at Tulsa! I moved into Lottie Jane Residence Hall with two of my friends this semester. Triple room. Triple the fun. As you can see from the picture, we are so happy to be back on campus because freshman year is an absolute blast. Until next time, Go TU!

Ashley- top bunk, Megan- bottom, Me- single bed

This weekend, I decided I wanted to make baked potatoes. However, after going to the store, buying a bag of NINETEEN potatoes, and realizing that there is no way I could eat NINETEEN potatoes, I decided to make a dinner party out of it. So me and a friend invited lots of friends over and had quite the feast, finishing up with a wonderful chocolate pie creation and a game of dominos (also availible for free check out at the front desk). Unfortunately, I did not remember to snap a photo of our event. But we had a ton of fun!

I can say without a doubt that Halloween is one of my favorite days out of they year, especially as I get older. About a month ago my friends and I decided that we should make our costumes correlate, and we decided Teen Titans would be the best option. It quickly caught wind and more people joined, we lost some in the tedious process of making the costumes, but overall it turned out well for Haunted Hall. Making the costumes was fun in it’s own right and then dressing up and seeing the surprised looks on everyone’s faces was priceless. Luckily this was just a test run for Halloween because some costumes, especially my friend’s Sebastian’s (who is Red X in this picture) were incomplete and almost falling apart. I’m looking forward to Halloween on Wednesday because I get to play at the TU men’s basketball game in full costume, and then my friends and I are hitting the town for some trick-or-treating. NEVER too old to trick-or-treat, you’ve just got to find someone who’s willing to give you the candy. By far one of the best Halloween’s I’ve had in years.

One of the great things that happens during the first semester are Hurricane Thursdays. Every Thursday is a different event, which are mainly geared towards getting the freshman involved with things on campus, but are open to every TU student. So far we’ve had events such as First Thursday which was a big activities fair, Pizzas of Tulsa that was put on by RHA so everyone can sample the different pizza places around town, and a Pool Party Fiesta which included live music and Qdoba. Most recently the hall government in Fisher South put on Boxer Bash, which is a dance in your underpants! Everyone dances the night away while their boxers are proudly shown on the outside of their pants. We got to enjoy a DJ while also getting to eat tons of pizza, donuts, and cookies in the shape of boxers!

It’s only been a month of school and I’m so excited to see what the rest of the year brings!

I took my first on-campus shower the first night that I moved in. My parents were still in town from dropping me off and were staying in a hotel downtown, so I had the chance to take one last private shower before really starting off my college experience, but I decided against it.

To be honest, as stupid as it may sound, showering on campus for the first time made me think, “What am I getting myself into?” It wasn’t what I was used to. I’ve never had to wear flip flops while I shower, and I think everyone can agree that taking a shower for the first time in an unfamiliar bathroom is a weird experience. I came out of my first shower thinking, “How am I going to shower here every single day until November?”

Well, I have good news: it’s November, and I’ve managed so far. In fact, I’ve started to even enjoy the showers. My roommate and I have pretty similar schedules, and one thing we’ve gotten in the habit of doing is showering at the same time so we can talk to each other from our different shower stalls. (It’s a little bit weird if there are other people there… but we don’t care.) On top of that, a lot of the girls on my floor like to play their music when they shower. Of course, that’s annoying if you don’t like the music that they’re playing, but, luckily, my floor has pretty good taste in music from what I’ve heard in the bathrooms. Sometimes, if there’s a song that I really like, I’ll sing along under my breath until my roommate yells at me to stop being embarrassing.

Now that Thanksgiving is getting close, I’ve started to think about what it’ll be like showering at home again. I would be very surprised if I didn’t walk into my shower with flip flops on just out of habit.

Moral of the story: most things about college are fun. Even the showers.

Never to fear, spring is bound to get here eventually!  For those of you that might not know, spring also means that Springfest is approaching. Springfest is a week long event that is put on by the Student Association and every year a concert is included.  Last year Imagine Dragons came, the lead singer Dan touched my hand, we shared a moment, I blogged about it!  The band for this year is announced next week and that is going to start off February on the right note and will help me get over thinking about the cold.

If you’re in an area that is feeling the winter weather I wish you the best of luck staying warm and if you’re enjoying a much milder winter, know that I am extremely jealous!

I’m from Arizona and in high school I got a generic brochure in the mail telling me to think of coming to TU.  My first thought was that the pictures were pretty, the second thought when I looked into the actual school was it had all of the areas of study that I was thinking of going into.  But did I really want to go all the way to Oklahoma for school?  At the time that was the million dollar question!

I came to Tulsa Time in February after my admissions counselor recommended it, and I was sold! I mean I knew this was the school from the moment I walked on campus.  When you find the right school you really do know. It’s just a gut feeling, and TU had my heart.  You spend the weekend on campus, you stay in campus housing, go to a class or two, and meet a lot of people.  You get to live out what college is like for a couple days and it really makes it easy for you to figure out if you could wake up in the residence hall every day and walk to classes.  TU was the only school I actually visited because it was absolutely where I was suppose to be.

I want all of you to experience the same thing! Come to TU this month, be a college student for a weekend, and figure out if you get the feeling you belong here.  I would hope that everyone comes here, falls in love with the school, and goes home to send in their letter of intent.  Even if that doesn’t happen, how will you know this is/isn’t the school for you until you come and experience TU for yourself?  I can’t wait to (hopefully) see you all on campus in a few weeks!

The first picture I took on campus was McFarlin Library.

As many of you might already know, Fisher South is the all-freshman residence hall at TU. I have the great pleasure of working and living there. Seriously… it’s the best place on campus!

I’m convinced that some of the coolest people on campus work in the building, although I may be a little biased.  But, what is even cooler than the staff are the programs which are put on for the building.  Since the hall is all about the freshmen, Fisher is responsible for the First Year Residential Experience or as it is commonly referred, FYRE (pronounced FIRE). These programs are typically geared towards giving the freshmen an opportunity to get off campus, get to know Tulsa, or get them plugged in with different things around TU.

Recently Fisher South went to the Oklahoma Aquarium as a FYRE program. It was the first time I had been to the aquarium here in Tulsa, and it was a lot of fun! One of my favorite animals to watch were the jellyfish, even though I am actually really scared of them.

There was also this really cool exhibit where you could crawl in a little door and then stand up in this little cubbyhole and look at the fish from inside the tank.  It was suppose to be meant for kids but we crawled in there anyway

There is also a shark tunnel that created perfect picture backdrops.  You just get to watch as sharks swim all around you.

I was really sad when we had to go but, the trip was a lot of fun, and rumor has it that another FYRE trip will be a day at the Tulsa Zoo! Until next time!

This summer I have the opportunity to work on campus giving tours and working in the TU Office of Admission. As rising juniors, a significant number of my friends decided to stay in Tulsa to complete internships, summer classes, and to take the summer as an opportunity to try to make it on their own. I am living on campus in an apartment and so far it has been a fun adjustment.  The past two years I have lived in a residence hall, and next year I will continue working in the residence hall with the first-year residents. I am super excited for this!  However, by living in an apartment over the summer, knowing I will be moving back into the residence hall in a few months, has been a fine balance between getting what I need to function over the summer and making sure I can still fit all of the things I do get back into my room next year.  An on-going joke between my friends and I is that I am a squatter in the apartment for the summer.  My room is pretty empty with just an air mattress set out on the floor.  Even my alarm clock and my lamp just sit conveniently on the floor next to my bed.

I’ve already learned quite a few lessons living on my own.  On the first day I got back to Tulsa for the summer, my roommate and I went to Target so I could pick up all the essentials.  When we got back, climbed the stairs to the third floor and unloaded everything, we realized I forgot to get a shower curtain.  It wasn’t such a big deal until the next day when all I wanted to do was take a shower.  It’s comical now, but at the time trying to take a shower without flooding the bathroom while missing a shower curtain was a real struggle.  That afternoon we ran back to Target to get one and this time when we came back we realized we had forgotten the shower rings to hang up the curtain.  It is these little things that no one reminds you about when you live on your own.

I’m really excited to have the chance to spend my first summer in Tulsa, whether it’s learning how to live on my own for the first time, giving tours or exploring the city.  If you come and visit campus this summer, there’s a pretty good chance I’ll be the one showing you around, and I’ll try my best not to let you melt in the summer heat!

Each year move-in week is deemed one of the craziest weeks of the school year, not only for those who are moving into the residence halls, but also for the staff members who are making sure that everything runs as smoothly as possible. I work in Fisher South, the all-freshmen residence hall. Move-in week is extremely exciting and as staff members we were counting down the days until we could meet the new residents and welcome them into their new home for the next two semesters.

The first big event that each resident hall hosted was Hall of a Movie. Everyone’s welcome bag contained a bag of popcorn to bring to any hall for a movie night. In Fisher South we showed The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.

There is so much to get involved in right away, and one of the organizations based right out of the residence hall is Hall Government.  Right after move-in we had an informational meeting about Hall Government and it was the perfect way to kick start the year.

We are only a week or so into classes at this point, but it has been a great start to what is sure to be a wonderful year.

I took my first on-campus shower the first night that I moved in. My parents were still in town from dropping me off and were staying in a hotel downtown, so I had the chance to take one last private shower before really starting off my college experience, but I decided against it.

To be honest, as stupid as it may sound, showering on campus for the first time made me think, “What am I getting myself into?” It wasn’t what I was used to. I’ve never had to wear flip flops while I shower, and I think everyone can agree that taking a shower for the first time in an unfamiliar bathroom is a weird experience. I came out of my first shower thinking, “How am I going to shower here every single day until November?”

Well, I have good news: it’s November, and I’ve managed so far. In fact, I’ve started to even enjoy the showers. My roommate and I have pretty similar schedules, and one thing we’ve gotten in the habit of doing is showering at the same time so we can talk to each other from our different shower stalls. (It’s a little bit weird if there are other people there… but we don’t care.) On top of that, a lot of the girls on my floor like to play their music when they shower. Of course, that’s annoying if you don’t like the music that they’re playing, but, luckily, my floor has pretty good taste in music from what I’ve heard in the bathrooms. Sometimes, if there’s a song that I really like, I’ll sing along under my breath until my roommate yells at me to stop being embarrassing.

Now that Thanksgiving is getting close, I’ve started to think about what it’ll be like showering at home again. I would be very surprised if I didn’t walk into my shower with flip flops on just out of habit.

Moral of the story: most things about college are fun. Even the showers.

Never to fear, spring is bound to get here eventually!  For those of you that might not know, spring also means that Springfest is approaching. Springfest is a week long event that is put on by the Student Association and every year a concert is included.  Last year Imagine Dragons came, the lead singer Dan touched my hand, we shared a moment, I blogged about it!  The band for this year is announced next week and that is going to start off February on the right note and will help me get over thinking about the cold.

If you’re in an area that is feeling the winter weather I wish you the best of luck staying warm and if you’re enjoying a much milder winter, know that I am extremely jealous!

I’m from Arizona and in high school I got a generic brochure in the mail telling me to think of coming to TU.  My first thought was that the pictures were pretty, the second thought when I looked into the actual school was it had all of the areas of study that I was thinking of going into.  But did I really want to go all the way to Oklahoma for school?  At the time that was the million dollar question!

I came to Tulsa Time in February after my admissions counselor recommended it, and I was sold! I mean I knew this was the school from the moment I walked on campus.  When you find the right school you really do know. It’s just a gut feeling, and TU had my heart.  You spend the weekend on campus, you stay in campus housing, go to a class or two, and meet a lot of people.  You get to live out what college is like for a couple days and it really makes it easy for you to figure out if you could wake up in the residence hall every day and walk to classes.  TU was the only school I actually visited because it was absolutely where I was suppose to be.

I want all of you to experience the same thing! Come to TU this month, be a college student for a weekend, and figure out if you get the feeling you belong here.  I would hope that everyone comes here, falls in love with the school, and goes home to send in their letter of intent.  Even if that doesn’t happen, how will you know this is/isn’t the school for you until you come and experience TU for yourself?  I can’t wait to (hopefully) see you all on campus in a few weeks!

The first picture I took on campus was McFarlin Library.

As many of you might already know, Fisher South is the all-freshman residence hall at TU. I have the great pleasure of working and living there. Seriously… it’s the best place on campus!

I’m convinced that some of the coolest people on campus work in the building, although I may be a little biased.  But, what is even cooler than the staff are the programs which are put on for the building.  Since the hall is all about the freshmen, Fisher is responsible for the First Year Residential Experience or as it is commonly referred, FYRE (pronounced FIRE). These programs are typically geared towards giving the freshmen an opportunity to get off campus, get to know Tulsa, or get them plugged in with different things around TU.

Recently Fisher South went to the Oklahoma Aquarium as a FYRE program. It was the first time I had been to the aquarium here in Tulsa, and it was a lot of fun! One of my favorite animals to watch were the jellyfish, even though I am actually really scared of them.

There was also this really cool exhibit where you could crawl in a little door and then stand up in this little cubbyhole and look at the fish from inside the tank.  It was suppose to be meant for kids but we crawled in there anyway

There is also a shark tunnel that created perfect picture backdrops.  You just get to watch as sharks swim all around you.

I was really sad when we had to go but, the trip was a lot of fun, and rumor has it that another FYRE trip will be a day at the Tulsa Zoo! Until next time!

This summer I have the opportunity to work on campus giving tours and working in the TU Office of Admission. As rising juniors, a significant number of my friends decided to stay in Tulsa to complete internships, summer classes, and to take the summer as an opportunity to try to make it on their own. I am living on campus in an apartment and so far it has been a fun adjustment.  The past two years I have lived in a residence hall, and next year I will continue working in the residence hall with the first-year residents. I am super excited for this!  However, by living in an apartment over the summer, knowing I will be moving back into the residence hall in a few months, has been a fine balance between getting what I need to function over the summer and making sure I can still fit all of the things I do get back into my room next year.  An on-going joke between my friends and I is that I am a squatter in the apartment for the summer.  My room is pretty empty with just an air mattress set out on the floor.  Even my alarm clock and my lamp just sit conveniently on the floor next to my bed.

I’ve already learned quite a few lessons living on my own.  On the first day I got back to Tulsa for the summer, my roommate and I went to Target so I could pick up all the essentials.  When we got back, climbed the stairs to the third floor and unloaded everything, we realized I forgot to get a shower curtain.  It wasn’t such a big deal until the next day when all I wanted to do was take a shower.  It’s comical now, but at the time trying to take a shower without flooding the bathroom while missing a shower curtain was a real struggle.  That afternoon we ran back to Target to get one and this time when we came back we realized we had forgotten the shower rings to hang up the curtain.  It is these little things that no one reminds you about when you live on your own.

I’m really excited to have the chance to spend my first summer in Tulsa, whether it’s learning how to live on my own for the first time, giving tours or exploring the city.  If you come and visit campus this summer, there’s a pretty good chance I’ll be the one showing you around, and I’ll try my best not to let you melt in the summer heat!

Each year move-in week is deemed one of the craziest weeks of the school year, not only for those who are moving into the residence halls, but also for the staff members who are making sure that everything runs as smoothly as possible. I work in Fisher South, the all-freshmen residence hall. Move-in week is extremely exciting and as staff members we were counting down the days until we could meet the new residents and welcome them into their new home for the next two semesters.

The first big event that each resident hall hosted was Hall of a Movie. Everyone’s welcome bag contained a bag of popcorn to bring to any hall for a movie night. In Fisher South we showed The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.

There is so much to get involved in right away, and one of the organizations based right out of the residence hall is Hall Government.  Right after move-in we had an informational meeting about Hall Government and it was the perfect way to kick start the year.

We are only a week or so into classes at this point, but it has been a great start to what is sure to be a wonderful year.

Before heading off to college, you will get a lot of advice from family members, friends, social media and about a million websites. Everyone wants to help prepare you for college life and being away from home. 

Maria Devoto, a sophomore Chemical Engineering major from Easton, Conn., weighs in as she has one year of the “TU Life” under her belt. Here is her advice for the incoming Class of 2019!

1.  Get off campus when you can! TU has a beautiful campus and there are always dozens of things going on. It can be easy to spend all your time there. However, I seriously recommend spending some time off campus, at least once every week or two. The city of Tulsa has so much to offer, so even if you’re just heading down the road to 918 for a coffee, make the trip. And be sure to check out the Tulsa State Fair! I’ll never forget the rodeo I saw there.

2.  Try something new. This may be the most repeated advice ever, but that’s because it couldn’t be any more important. In high school, I participated in the same sports and clubs as my friends, mostly because they were involved or because it was something I’d been doing since I was five years old. At TU, no club or sport or organization is better than the next, and when in doubt, if something sounds even just mildly interesting, join it. Even if you don’t stick with it all four years, you’ll meet new people and learn new things about yourself.

3.  Keep saying, “Hi! Where are you from? What’s your major?” You will say that phrase approximately 8,000,000 times during orientation week and the first month of school. I got so sick of people saying, “Oh, you’re from Connecticut?” and having to explain why I traveled halfway across the country for college. No matter how tedious the basic questions get, keep asking them to people – ask the girl you run into in the bathroom, the kid behind you in the cafeteria line, the person you sit next to in Calc 1. It’s one of the best ways to meet new people, and even if you get tired of answering those questions, you won’t get tired of hearing the answers.

4. Use a planner. Being organized is so, so, SO important in college. You don’t  want to miss a deadline, and having a planner helps so much with budgeting your time. Maybe you didn’t use a planner in high school, but you will have so much more work in college, and a lot more freedom. Having a planner will help so much with keeping you organized.

5. Go to sporting events! TU is the smallest Division 1 football school so take advantage of that! In high school, I went to maybe one football game, but in college, I attended every football game, most of the basketball games, and also some softball and soccer games and tennis matches. It is so much fun to watch our teams play, especially when you know some of the players!

6. Keep your door open. If you’re living in a residence hall, keep your door open. It’s a great way to meet people. During move-in day, my first-semester roommate and I walked down the hall and talked to every girl who had her door open. Yes, it’s awkward to meet so many people at once, but it paid off. By the end of the year, if I heard someone coming down the hall, I didn’t even have to look up without knowing it was someone I was friends with.

7. Only take classes you enjoy. In high school, you had to take certain classes because it looked impressive for colleges. Well, you got into college, so now take classes you enjoy! College is a time to find out what you want your career path to be, and you won’t find that out by taking classes that make you miserable. Take classes that challenge and interest you, and you’ll be much better off.

8. Keep in touch with friends from home. For me, “home” is 1,500 miles away in Easton, Conn. None of my friends visited me at school, and I never went home for weekends, but I still have plenty of high school friends that I love to catch up with when I’m home on break. College is a great way to meet new friends, but don’t forget about the old ones. I always called friends from home when walking to and from places on campus. Even if we just talked for ten minutes, it was nice to check in. Plus, TU has a great mail service, so take advantage of that and send letters and packages.

9. Prioritize. Remember why you’re at college. While you can learn a lot from sitting around talking to friends, you’re in college to get a degree. It’s important to budget your time well and study enough for your classes. You have so much more time in college than high school, but that time gets filled up quickly, so make sure you fill it with things that matter.

10. Spend some time sitting in front of the library. I feel spoiled because I can’t go to any other library without thinking about how much prettier McFarlin is. The front steps of our library are an amazing place with a fantastic view of downtown. In my opinion, there’s nothing better than taking a break sitting on the steps outside the library and watching a beautiful Oklahoma sunrise or sunset.

Today’s blog post is from Katie Snyder, a junior Communications major from Des Moines, Iowa.

Throughout the past year, our campus has been under construction. I’m not complaining because while this created some noise and some dust, mostly it created anticipation. TU’s campus was buzzing with possibilities. As students, we understood that we were part of something special. The originators. The generation of students that would remember both where TU had been and where it was going.

Witnessing growth is a pretty spectacular thing.

The campus you’ll see when you come for Tulsa Time, or a tour, or moving in for your freshman year, is much different than the campus I first stepped foot on four years ago. Buildings have sprung up, dining options have been added, new colleges and programs have been created, clubs have been chartered.  Change is happening all over campus. And we, as students, get to take on this growth as both a challenge and an exciting opportunity.

I am a Resident Assistant (RA) in the brand new Hardesty Hall. I got a chance to walk through this building when it was nothing but bones and cement. And I got to walk by it every day and see it transform in front of my eyes into the astonishing building it is today. When I moved in early for training, the building was still being finished. I watched ceiling tiles go up in the halls and handles being put on doors with final touches being added from top to bottom. I know this building’s story in a way that shapes my experience living in it.

Students on campus share a collective awe of this building. I saw it in faces of residents as they walked in on move-in day and it fully dawned on them that this beautiful place was their new home. I saw it on the first day of classes as people passed under the archway, straining their necks looking up and around. Even my parents, when they visited for the first time, couldn’t stop expressing their amazement at this building and the many other improvements to campus.

The Hardesty Staff does not take lightly the gift that has been given to us. The opening of a new building presents challenges that none of us could anticipate. There are so many things to take into account when creating a residence hall for students, but it is our responsibility to ensure that this building, this university, is home for them. We do that through programming, getting residents out of their rooms and meeting one another (often with food involved…because we get it). We do it through support, by being here for students when they need us and learning all of their names and really, truly caring if they are happy. We do it by ensuring student safety, but giving them more independence than they’ve likely known before. And for freshmen, we help introduce them to the campus and the many things they can be involved in here. And often, they surprise us by starting something brand new themselves, because the attitude of this place invites that.

I’ve loved this school since the first time I came to visit, but I had no idea how many more reasons there would be to love it once I arrived. Embrace the changes that will come in your time at TU. With each new renovation, each program of study, or club or organization, life as a student here gets better and better.