With the last applications for freshman DOC trips trickling in, Trips Coordinator Dana Loebman '00 said she has almost finished assigning the incoming freshmen to their DOC trips, and will mail the assignments today.
Approximately 900 first-year students as well as some transfer students have signed up to go on a trip, which is a relatively standard number, Loebman said. In recent years, she said, the trips have become increasingly popular, with up to 80 or 90 percent of students in the incoming class signing up for a trip.
"Specialty trips tend to be more popular," Loebman said.
While the largest number of students goes on one of the five different hiking trips, these selections also offer the largest number of spaces to accommodate students, she said. The very popular, but fewer in number, kayaking trips are the ones for which the DOC has to turn down the most applications, she said.
This year, freshmen will also be able to choose two new trips -- a road biking trip and a trail work trip, besides the choices of hiking, mountain biking, kayaking, canoeing, rock climbing, horseback riding, fly fishing and organic farming trips that have been offered in past years, Loebman said.
"I don't doubt it'll go very smoothly," Loebman said of the two new trips.
The road-biking and trail-work trips were also offered at the last minute last year, she said, although they did not appear on the DOC trip application form. Loebman said she contacted students directly to ask them if they might be interested in going on one of these two trips. The trips were well-received, she said.
"We saw a lot of enthusiasm for road biking trips," Loebman said.
Apart from the addition of these two trips, this year's DOC trips will not be much different from trips of years past.
They will start a day earlier simply because of the way the calendar falls, Loebman said. The first of the nine sections will leave on September 2, and the last trip will return on September 15.
As Rosh Hashanah will fall exactly during the time when students are going on one of the later DOC trips, Loebman said she has had to make special accommodations with the Office of Residential Life. The later trips are usually meant for students who are coming to the College from farther away, so they can move directly into their rooms after their DOC trip, while students on earlier sections return home after their trip.
Students who are assigned to one of the later sections but do not want to be on a DOC trip while they are observing the Jewish holiday can now be assigned to an earlier trip, and have permission from ORL to move into their rooms earlier than usually allowed, so they can celebrate Rosh Hashanah on campus, Loebman said.
The total number of trip leaders, 200, is slightly higher than last year's total, she said. Several trips which were lead by one person in the past are now being co-led, she said.
Forty students are working for Hanover Crew, Lodge Crew, Climbing Crew, Safety Crew, or serving as leader trainers, approximately the same number as served in these positions last year.
