UTC volunteers in gold shirts assisted students moving into residence halls during Operation Move In on Wednesday, Aug. 19. Photo by Angela Foster.
As students arrived in cars packed from top to bottom, volunteer students, staff, faculty and administrators in bright gold shirts stood ready to help move vacuum cleaners, shoe racks and everything else a residence hall room might need.
Operation Move In, held Aug. 19-20, is an annual University of Tennessee at Chattanooga event that helps students move to campus. The campuswide effort brings together students, faculty, staff and administrators to ease the transition and introduce new students to classmates and the people of UTC.
Erica Holmes Trujillo, director of The HUB (Student Success Center) in the College of Arts and Sciences and interim co-director of Integrated Studies, is serving a second year as co-chair of the OMI Volunteer Coordinator Committee.
She explained that the “energy” on campus is her favorite part of the OMI experience.
“My favorite time of my life was college,” Holmes Trujillo said. “I remember moving in, and I just love how everybody rallies around for the Mocs spirit.”
Sophomore Braxton Hughes was among the students returning to campus. A mechanical engineering major with a minor in entrepreneurship, Hughes returned with greater familiarity.
“Coming in as a freshman, you’re going: ‘Where is everybody? Where do I go?’ Now you know where you’re going and what to do,” said the Drummond, Tennessee, native. “You know how to pack, which is extremely nice and helps ease the moving-in process.”
His parents, Brendon and Stacy Hughes, described the feeling after dropping their child off as mixed.
“You’re excited to see them go, but sad to see him leave,” Brendon Hughes said. “Watching your child grow into their next step in life is probably the biggest thing.”
More than 450 members of the UTC family volunteered to assist during Operation Move In.
The Hughes family recalled last year’s OMI and highlighted the University’s support during what can be a stressful period.
“The logistics have been incredible,” Stacy Hughes said. “We’ve actually bragged on UTC for this experience. We hear horror stories of kids moving in. Both years have been phenomenal.”
For some students, it was their first time moving in on campus.
Lillie McKeand, a freshman from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, hopes to grow during her time at UTC and enjoyed the move-in process.
“Everybody’s been super nice and the process has been really smooth so far,” said McKeand, who plans to major in psychology. “I’m just excited to make new friends and just be here and experience something new. I’ve been in Murfreesboro my whole life, so I’m excited to be in a different city.”
For some students, it may be a short drive to campus or even a few-hour drive.
For Jordan Walker, it was a multiday odyssey from her hometown of Pleasanton, California.
“We got to see a lot of cool stuff,” Walker said. “The first couple of days we went through Arizona mainly. I got to see the Mojave Desert in California. We stopped through Flagstaff and then went to see the Petrified Forest. That was pretty cool. And then the rest of the way was kind of just onward. We didn’t really stop because there’s a whole lot of nothing.”
When choosing between universities, she explained that affordability, residence hall life and proximity to family made it easy for her to choose UTC.
“I’m super excited to make a lot of new friends and explore the area because I’ve never really been outside of California,” Walker said. “This is a new adventure for me.”
Holmes Trujillo highlighted the entire campus coming together as what makes UTC different from other universities.
“It is truly a community,” Holmes Trujillo said. “What other institution are you going to see that the person that’s teaching you in class on Monday is helping you move in your belongings four days prior?”
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Operation Move In photo gallery by Angela Foster
Jordan Walker smiling with her father after the drive from Pleasanton, California.
