‘Unpack the Pride’ provides entertainment, friendships

Freshman Christina Garrick carries her belongings into LaGrange Hall with the help of ‘Unpack the Pride’ volunteers. Volunteers included students, parents and campus faculty and staff.

A new group of freshmen converged in Florence and moved into their residence halls on Friday Aug. 16, while upperclassmen moved in on Aug. 17.

Jordy Searcy, a sophomore from Fairhope, Ala., moved into Rice Hall and said that he loves it.

“Move-in day was great,” he said. “The room looked small at first, but once I moved my bed up high and made a desk area underneath, the room started looking a lot bigger.”

Searcy said his favorite thing about the residence hall since move-in day is most of the students he has met have been able to play music with him.

Sophomore Stephanie Mullins of Decatur, Ala. moved into Appleby Hall on Aug. 1, but helped other students move in during Unpack the Pride.

Mullins said she enjoyed being part of Unpack the Pride.

“Unpack the Pride was crazy as usual and super tiring but I loved getting to meet and talk to lots of new people and meet the girls that lived in my old room,” she said.

Hunter Girder of Hazelgreen, Ala. moved into Rivers Hall. He said he has not been homesick yet because living away from home has not set in.

He said he has met several dozen people and believes making new friends is important to freshmen.

“I think it is probably one of the most important things — it kind of gives you a friend base of people,” he said.

Peyton Sheffield, a freshman from Florence, moved into LaGrange Hall.

She said she decided to live-on campus to save on gas and that move-in day was not that big of deal for her.

“My parents weren’t even that emotional, my Dad was out of town and my Mom was just like, ‘ok let me just rearrange your room,’” she said.

Sheffield said she was surprised about the set up of visitiation rules for the resident halls.

“It is pretty cool, my Dad thought that it would be locked up like Fort Knox,” she said. “They were just like ‘oh well you can bring who you want, but you figure all that visitation stuff out with your rommate.’