New Student Orientation

From GSLISWiki

Dear New Students:

Welcome to the unofficial GSLIS Wiki. We hope that you will find the information contained in here useful. Please do not hesitate to let us know if you have any questions which the wiki leaves unanswered. This page is intended to provide helpful information for when you first arrive on campus, but it needs a lot of work. Feel free to email Ingbert Floyd at ifloyd2@uiuc.edu if you have any questions. I'll be happy to answer them as best I can, and will put up the information on this page.

The major resource for answering most of your questions will probably be your fellow students, and the main office in GSLIS on the first floor. The office staff are very nice, and very knowledgeable. The place to go for answers to any of your computing questions would be the Information Technology Office (ITO) on the second floor, right above the main office (and also very nice and knowledgeable). In both these places, if they don't know the answers, they'll tell you who does.

We want to start a new student FAQ, but we don't have any questions, so feel free to click on the link and ask some:

New Student FAQ

On the unofficial GSLIS Wiki, be sure to check out the following categories to browse lists of relavant pages:

Orientation Resources Category

Resources Category

1 Information Fairs
2 Administrivia
- 2.1 Getting your UIUC ID Card
3 Access to Computer Accounts
4 Housing
5 Relaxing, Having Fun, Getting to Know Your Fellow Students
6 Program Requirements
7 Other Resources on the Wiki
8 Related Links

[edit] Information Fairs

From somebody in the administration:

"This fall, the Graduate College and University Housing will co-sponsor a Graduate Student Information Fair for all incoming graduate students and their families, in an effort to help familiarize them with the numerous campus and community resources to support their experience here at Illinois. Over 60 campus units and community organizations have been invited to participate in this event, including organizations like CITES, the Counseling Center, the Tenant Union, and the University Library. Graduate student attendance over the last few years has been strong and continues to grow.

I am writing to request that you share information about this event with the newly admitted students in your unit. Here are some key event details:

Graduate Student Information Fair

Friday, September 8, 2006

Illini Union rooms A, B, & C

10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Additional information at" http://www.grad.uiuc.edu/mastercalendar

[edit] Administrivia

[edit] Getting your UIUC ID Card

Normally you can get your ID in the university bookstore, which is right on the corner of Wright and Daniel streets, about a block away from GSLIS on the opposite side of the street, right near the university quad. The card office is on the 2nd floor in the back--go up the stairs and keep going straight, if my memory serves me correctly.

When the freshmen are on campus for their orientation at the beginning of the Fall Semester, they move at least some of their services to the Illini Union. You may be redirected from the UIB to the Union.

[edit] Access to Computer Accounts

To obtain your login name and password, you need to talk to one of the people in the Front Office. They will have your user account information in an envelope there.

There are several different passwords for different accounts and logins which you will have, including Cites, Enterprise, and GSLIS. For more information, talk to the people in the OITR or check out their guide to passwords at:

http://leep.lis.uiuc.edu/techguide/Your_Accounts_and_Passwords/Introduction/index.html

The OITR has also created some other help pages which you may find useful:

http://leep.lis.uiuc.edu/techguide/

Check out important UIUC Websites that you will need or may find useful, including NESSIE which allows you to access your employment information, and the new Banner system which allows you to register for your classes, view your financial aid information, etc.

[edit] Housing

Check out the Housing page.

If you are checking out housing, stop by the Tenant Union (http://www.tenantunion.uiuc.edu/) in the Illini Union to get information about your landlord. They are very good and very helpful. They can advise on the apartment hunting process and how best to protect your interests. They also know which landlords and companies are scum, and they know which aren't. Stop in, email them or call them (tenant@uiuc.edu or 217-333-0112) to get the complaint records against landlords whose properties you're thinking about renting.

The most child friendly place to live in Urbana Champaign that I am aware of is Orchard Downs Graduate Housing. It is a wonderful place with affordable apartments, 5 or more playgrounds, and has a large population of families with kids of all ages (and a large population of International Students as well).

The official UIUC Housing page is at: http://www.housing.uiuc.edu/

For rental listings, try the News-Gazette's classified ads section (http://www.news-gazette.com/). You can look at the apartment search section, but it doesn't provide information about, say, whether the property you're looking at has any open units. You can also look at the campus newspaper, the Daily Illini (http://www.dailyillini.com), which also has an apartment search (for currently renting properties), but, again, your best bet is the plain jane classifieds.

[edit] Relaxing, Having Fun, Getting to Know Your Fellow Students

Many PhD students, faculty and staff gather regularly at the Esquire every Friday starting around 6:00 pm for a Symposium of sorts. Feel free to bring friends and family. It's a great chance to meet other people around GSLIS and talk about work, recreation, or just about anything else. Food is always available and typically well-priced. We meet outdoors during the summer for the benefit of the smokers and sometimes indoors at the Tumble Inn during the winter.

Drinking_GSLIS is a mailing list that was created to fascilitate social engagements among GSLIS Students. Despite its name, imbibing alchohol is purely optional--one of the founders told me that it originally referred to drinking coffee at Espresso Royale, and only later was expanded to mean drinking alchohol as well.

Check out the Other Unofficial GSLIS Stuff for other unofficial GSLIS activities, most of which are social-related (GSLIS Friendster page, GSLIS Photoblogs, etc.).