How Purdue Welcomes 8,000 Students Without Losing the Human Touch

It’s no secret that admissions teams are being asked to do more with less, all while serving a generation of students for whom immediacy, personalization, and digital-first everything is the norm.

While optional programs like orientation might seem like a nice-to-have, at Purdue University, they’ve become a core driver of connection, belonging, and even yield.

In fact, their flagship program, Boiler Gold Rush (BGR), regularly attracts about 8,000 incoming students — all by choice.

So how does Purdue University pull it off without overwhelming their staff, their budget, or their students?

Let’s take a look!

Note:this case study is based on a Guidebook Meets we did with Purdue in June of 2025. You can watch the entire webinar below:

Structure Without the Stress: How Purdue Balances Guidance and Freedom

Boiler Gold Rush is big. Like, festival-for-8,000-students big.

Held the week before classes begin, BGR is a four-day, high-touch orientation experience led by a small army of over 700 student staff.

What’s even more impressive? BGR isn’t mandatory. Yet, roughly 75% of Purdue’s incoming class chooses to participate. 

And it’s not a light decision for students either. Scroll through Reddit and you’ll find threads from students asking what BGR is like or what the attendance requirements are.

So what makes it work?

According to Craig Johnson, Purdue’s Director of Orientation Programs, it’s all about balancing structure and flexibility:

“If you just let students fly as soon as the beginning of the program, there are quite a few students that are gonna find themselves in the wrong place on campus and then just, just lock up.”

He also added that from a student’s perspective, that "lock up" can lead to thinking “I'd rather just sit in the comfort of my room, the one place that I am familiar with on campus.”

So, to build confidence from the start, students are immediately paired with small teams led by trained orientation leaders. 

Each day includes highly structured touchpoints, and as the program progresses, students get more freedom to attend sessions that match their interests. These could be academic previews, identity-based groups, or even exploring campus traditions.

The whole experience balances guidance and autonomy, helping students feel both supported and empowered.

The Campus Event Tech That Ties It All Together

Running a multi-day program for thousands of students means things can get chaotic fast, especially if you’re relying on printouts.

That’s why Purdue turned to Guidebook.

With their own branded app, Purdue Guide, the team ditched printed packets and delivered personalized, real-time content straight to students’ phones.

Here’s how it works:

• Students select their orientation team in the app to receive a custom schedule
• Updates happen in real-time
• Staff seizes every opportunity to encourage students to download the app. This includes placing QR codes on students' beds before they arrive, social media posts, QR codes on the stadium scoreboard, and more!
• Faculty and parents can also access schedules via web links
• The app serves as one single source of truth, from move-in through the final event

Overall, this approach simplifies logistics and also enhances the experience for students. 

There’s no more scrambling with printed papers or outdated schedules. Students know where they should be, how to get there, and what to expect — all from the phone that’s always in their hands.

And the impact? It shows up in the numbers.

Purdue’s Orientation Success, by the Numbers

By combining strong student leadership with digital-first execution, BGR delivers big results. 

Here’s a summary of Purdue’s success metrics, as well as what goes into making it work:

• 600,000+ app sessions logged in a single week
• 314 hours of total app usage (real engagement, not passive clicks)
• 8,000+ incoming students welcomed each year
• 75%+ participation rate, even though BGR is optional
• Thousands of pages and dollars saved by replacing printed materials with mobile access
• 50+ themed events offered per day
• 700+ student leaders supporting the experience

From clearer communication to greater connection, these numbers show what happens when the right tech supports schools in building community and a sense of belonging.

Download This Purdue Case Study

Real-World Tactics You Can Steal from Purdue

Purdue’s program is large, yes. But there are plenty of actionable strategies that other institutions, big or small, can take from their playbook:

Turn orientation into a yield engine

BGR isn’t just “welcome week.” It’s a high-impact touchpoint that builds affinity before day one.

Use tech to simplify, not overwhelm

Guidebook helped Purdue cut through complexity, reduce waste, and provide a clearer experience for students and staff alike.

Create affinity through teams and gamification

From team-based competition to small group bonding, Purdue keeps students engaged through shared identity and a bit of friendly rivalry.

Start communicating early

By building trust through intentional, pre-arrival messaging (emails, modules, leader outreach), Purdue sets the tone long before students ever step on campus.

Be intentional about app promotion

Purdue sees every touchpoint with students as an opportunity to promote their app.

So, not only do they mention the app in emails and social posts, but they go the extra mile when it comes to sharing the app's QR code. For example, they include it:

• On a check-in sheet placed on a student’s bed during move-in week
• Near check-in desks at the gym
• On the back of a simplified, paper schedule that everyone receives
• On the stadium scoreboard screen

Watch the Full Conversation with Purdue

Want to hear how this all comes together behind the scenes?

Check out our full conversation with Craig Johnson from Purdue to learn more about how they run BGR.

https://youtu.be/bXOh_BlAfuk

Let’s Chat About Your Next Event

If you're looking to scale your admitted student programming, orientation, or yield strategy without losing the human touch, we’re here to help.

Come visit us at NACAC 2025 or book a demo with one of our product experts to see how Guidebook can support your goals this fall.

Video Transcript

Click here to show the video transcript.

16:00:33 Hi, everyone, and welcome to today's Guidebook Meets session, and if you're joining your first Guidebook Meets.

16:00:41 Just a reminder, well, firstly, thank you for coming. These are very much webinars, fireside chats, where really we will talk about Guidebook, and we do want to do that, but that's not really the whole focus of today's session. We actually use these as an opportunity to bring our customers' stories to life.

16:00:58 And get into the programs that they run, why they do it, how they do it, and of course, Guidebook, we'll weave in, but we do say, you know, if you want to ask questions throughout, please do.

16:01:09 That can be about guidebook, but really that can be about anything that we discussed today. And today, we are excited to have Craig joining us from Purdue. Craig Johnson is Purdue, you know, is part of Purdue's orientation program, so we're…

16:01:22 Craig, we're excited to have you here today, and… I always like to get a sense of people's role to kick things off, you know, what do you love about what you do, and can you share a little bit On that, yourself and your experience at Purdue.

16:01:36 Yeah, for sure. Well, I appreciate you having me, Nathan. Uh, my name is Craig Johnson. I work as the Director of Orientation Programs at Purdue University in Indiana. I work at the flagship campus in West Lafayette, and as of last year, we also

16:01:53 Facilitate programming in Indianapolis as well. Uh, we have a full-time team of 9 full-time professional staff. We have over 700 student staff.

16:02:03 Most of them volunteers that also help with our work. Uh, we facilitate online programs, hybrid programs, on-site programs, and at all different times of year. So we're in the orientation season now, the online modules have begun, and advising appointments have begun as well.

16:02:20 We do a welcome week model that, uh, for us occurs In August, then we have spring programming, and a couple of programs coming up, uh, the next two weeks in June, so a couple different locat- uh, locations, couple different campuses, lots of different modalities of programming, all with the purpose of

16:02:40 Trying to introduce and connect students to this great university.

16:02:48 It sure is, yep.

16:02:43 I love that. It sounds… sounds nice and busy, like you've got a lot going on, um, which is great, and… I really do want to start with the big picture, and specifically, you know.

16:02:55 Boiler… Boiler Gold Rush is a massive undertaking, and I want to get a sense of the scale that we're talking about here, and… you know, I know it's a big event, and I'm looking forward to hearing about that, but, like, how do you…

16:03:07 How do you begin planning something of that size?

16:03:10 Yeah, for sure. So, for those that may not be familiar with our programs, Boiler Gold Rush is… Uh, what I say to my non-higher ed, uh, colleagues is, uh, four-day festival for 8,000 18-year-olds, and so, uh, it is a multi-day.

16:03:28 High-touch orientation, highly structured orientation experience that we host for students in the days preceding, specifically the fall semester.

16:03:38 We have alternative versions of that program, too. I mentioned spring programming. We have an event called Boiler Cold Rush. It is Indiana, it is January.

16:03:47 Um, so we have that for about 150 students, that's just 2 days before the start of term.

16:03:52 Um, and then, like I said, we facilitate these programs in West Lafayette and Indianapolis, and then have a pre-BGR orientation called Boiler Gold Rush International that's just for international students to give them a few days before the rest of their domestic and international peers come to campus. So, to your question, uh, how do we even start to plan something like that? For me, it's… it's…

16:04:16 Big relationships, right? And it's… it's a… for us to be an orientation program that predominantly drives on-site connection.

16:04:25 I have to make sure that I and our team have on-site relationships, and that relationship building is not just know who the person is, but it's understanding their work.

16:04:36 It's understanding the intersection of their work, particularly with new students.

16:04:41 And it's also understanding their work so that I'm not reaching out to them at times where they're super busy, right? Like, I'm not going to reach out to my athletics marketing colleagues, when it's football season, or when it's basketball season, or on a game day or something, because I know that

16:04:58 This is not their priority. I might reach out to them in between when football's away, or when they've got a stretch of a couple of weeks where they're not hosting games and things like that. So.

16:05:08 Um, so I think that's the big… to the big picture to start is relationships, because then if you're in good stature and good, um… you know, good standing with partners on campus.

16:05:21 It's a lot easier to… to understand what they may be able to give, what we better identify the specific nature of our needs.

16:05:32 Um, and start to speak, uh, different languages, or… so that we're all speaking the same language in… in, um, talking to new students and welcoming them to the campus. So, relationship building is number one, and then for us, too, because it's so high touch and highly structured.

16:05:47 Organization is a driver of that. We have to find ways to keep our team locked in and together, and we have to have a good operational flow, and so those things are critically important for the success internally to us as well.

16:06:01 I love that. Lots of good stuff to get into. I definitely want to come back to relationships and partnerships, because they're… you know, they're important for… everyone, when you think about event planning at its core, right? There are a few people that might be at the center of that universe, but

16:06:17 No great event happens without strong partnerships, really good collaboration, so excited to get into that, but I'm curious as well, you know.

16:06:06 Mm-hmm.

16:06:25 8,000, you know, 8,000 plus at peak is a lot of students, there's a lot of people Um, and how, you know, you're doing that across campuses, multiple times in the year, like.

16:06:35 How are you balancing having, like, a a good structure, a good foundation, but… allowing flexibility to come into your event, you know, really… Ensuring that students feel guided, but… Also, at the same time, have room to explore, right? It's an opportunity for them to kind of take their own path, so I'm curious how you… how do you do that at such scale?

16:06:56 Yeah, and it's especially interesting for us, because this program is not a requirement of students. Students pay to participate in the program. They opt in to participate in the program, and so… And despite that, because we have a long culture and tradition of this program.

16:07:13 We get about 75% of the incoming class to participate. That's where that 8,000 number comes from, but… So, we have high structure, and to us, it's… that structure is meaningful, because If you just let students fly as soon as the beginning of the program.

16:07:30 Well, there are quite a few students that are gonna… find themselves in the wrong place on campus, and then just… just lock up, right? Just… I have not found my way. I can't read a map in a particular direction, and I don't know where I'm going, so I'd rather just sit in the comfort of my room, the one place that I am familiar with on campus.

16:07:48 By us connecting them with their orientation leader right off the jump, um… we then have that orientation leader.

16:07:56 Take them from place to place. So there are specific times and locations, sometimes seats, that they have to sit in.

16:08:03 As a result of being on that team with that… that team leader. But then as we go further into the week.

16:08:10 Things become a little bit more flexible, so… so even on the second and third days of the program.

16:08:16 While the warning is highly structured, the afternoon is sort of pick-your-own-adventure there might be 50 or 75 events happening on campus in the afternoon.

16:08:27 And… the teams don't have to go to all of those together, right? If a student has is an engineer, because we don't, uh, sort groups by college or their academic major.

16:08:39 If I'm an engineer and I want to go to the Calculus 1 preview of what to expect for the semester, I might go to that, but my buddy who I just met, who's a political science major.

16:08:51 Or a nursing major who doesn't… need or have to take calculus in their first semester.

16:08:57 We might be splitting off and say, I'm gonna do this for an hour, but then I'll come back to you guys want to meet at this location. So… So that gives them to start to explore more affinity-based things, whether that affinity is based on their academic college, if it's one of their identities that they have, if it's based maybe on the region of the country or the world that they're coming from.

16:09:17 Maybe they're interested in studying abroad, or connecting with a counselor, or something like that. Like, these are all things that they can do.

16:09:26 But those afternoons are specific to, say. All right, let's fly a little bit.

16:09:30 So that they have some of that flexibility. So the whole week isn't already planned out.

16:09:35 For them. And so… so we try to balance that a little bit in and out, and then educate our team leaders to understand that, hey, there are pockets where I need you to to try and get your students to these sessions, because these are core values and presentations at the university.

16:09:48 But there's other things where college is all about exploration, right? Like, finding out what skills you need, or the people you want to connect with, the mentors you want to have, the research you want to do.

16:09:59 And if they can start to do that at the very first week of orientation, then it sets them up to continue that and be more comfortable and confident in that at the beginning part of the semester.

16:10:08 Yeah, I think there's… there's a few really interesting things I want to get into… into there, especially around, you know, like.

16:10:14 That is a lot of activity going on, right? So the first thing is, like.

16:10:17 Mm-hmm.

16:10:19 How do you present that information? How do you make that level of… opportunity, option.

16:10:28 Whatever you want to call it, right? That is a… it's a big schedule. How do you make that available? How do you communicate that? And how do you make sure that students are Not just aware of what's available to them, but…

16:10:38 Ultimately, it's like… that you can have too much choice, right, and kind of want to help the students get the choice, but can make the right choices at the same time that's going to impact their experience and all of that good stuff, and… How do you kind of start to do that?

16:10:52 Yeah, uh, 8,000 is overwhelming to anybody, if you're talking about 8,000 people at a space or going through one thing together, it's a lot of people.

16:11:02 And so, we recognize that there's… there's value in the big experience. So, for example, our first night of orientation. We send everybody to the football stadium, and it's… it's a lot of pump and circumstance. It's the… it's a pep rally, it's…

16:11:19 You're a Purdue Boilermaker, let's bring out the coaches, let's, like, bring out the marching band, let's… let's do all of these things to make you feel the pride of this… and tradition of this great institution.

16:11:31 Um, but we're not going to do that all week, because students will never be in a lecture of 8,000. They might be in a lecture of 500, But they're also going to be in small groups of 20, so… so then, we break that 8,000 down into… I shared that we have a lot of student leaders… 700 different

16:11:50 Groups of student volunteers that lead groups of you know, 15 or 20 around.

16:11:57 Campus. And so now. You have activities where students are having small group facilitated conversations in their small group of 20. They then might go to a session that's got a thousand in the room, maybe 6,000 in the room, maybe 8,000 in the room.

16:12:13 But then they come back, and then they do one of those side activities that we talked about a few minutes ago, and maybe that's in a room of 50, or that's with a group of 15, or that's with a group of 300 that are also interested in seeing more about the Calc 1 course.

16:12:26 And so, having that balance of This program is a lot of people.

16:12:32 Purdue is a lot of people. There will be times where you are around a lot of people.

16:12:36 But there are ways to make this campus feel really small.

16:12:41 And so you're doing things in those small… and that… that is so purposeful, that's so intentional.

16:12:47 Uh, because we understand that people would would fall out of the program, they would not continue because of the overwhelming size and nature of that. Some folks would thrive.

16:12:58 But others would be like, I would much rather play literally anything in my room and not have to deal with that madness.

16:13:06 And the other thing that I'll mention that we do is that, um… Uh, you know, something that is a strategy a lot of… folks viewed in the corporate sector, or even in higher education as well, is just gamifying experiences that this generation is very eager to.

16:13:23 Have a challenge or a competition, or a way to compete, or at least to see… Uh, you know, followers increase, or like a leaderboard increase, or show progress, and those type of ways. And so.

16:13:34 For many, many years, even prior to this generation coming into the higher ed landscape, we've broken down that 8,000 into teams.

16:13:43 So yes, I have an orientation leader, I have my group of 20, But I also have… am one of maybe 150 team leaders, so individual teams.

16:13:52 That are made up in what we call a hall team.

16:13:54 So it's completely made up, but it's… we take the buildings of which they live close by. Um, and we… give… attach a made-up name to it, that's the made-up part.

16:14:07 And we say, this is your affiliation for the week. Right? You are in the McHarrison Hall team.

16:14:13 Because the majority of you are living in either McCutcheon or Harrison. So we've combined those words.

16:14:19 And said, you are in the McHarrison Hall team. And there's pride in that. And so, um… So… so that in itself is… Affinity. So their affinity law, like.

16:14:31 High level to produce. Their affinity to this… BGR, Boiler Gold Rush-specific Hall team, based on where they live.

16:14:39 Um, and then there's affinity to their orientation leader, or… to get further inside baseball, if you will, we pair up the student leaders and what we call buddies. So every orientation leader has a buddy that at any point during the week, they can say, hey, do you want to do this debrief activity together?

16:14:57 So now, these students have a team leader. Or a team leader buddy that they can rely on and go through things throughout the week.

16:15:05 And then I see one question in the chat here of an example of gamification at events.

16:15:10 What we do throughout the week is encourage attendance by saying, if you attend events.

16:15:15 You earn points for your hall team. And at the end of the week, we announce the winner of the Inner Hall Team Showdown. So these 5 big hall teams of 1,500 people sometimes 2,000 people.

16:15:30 Are competing against each other just by showing up. Just by being a good collegial member of the community, just by, you know, hey, I saw someone go around, and they were picking up water bottles, and throwing it in the trash, and a campus partner emailed me about it. Guess what? They are in the McCarrison ball team.

16:15:48 Points for McHarrison, right? You feel like Dumbledore, like, like, giving, giving, like… house points, right? Um, and so that… that's a good example of something that, just by showing up, they can earn.

16:16:00 And then they're competing against each other for bragging rights throughout the week.

16:16:04 And then there's other gamification examples inside the sessions that we might do, so we might use different platforms for… individual person, um, uh, competition, so, like, uh, quizzes that we do in the session, they can scan a QR code and then participate that way.

16:16:24 Um, and we can… we do that in both academic or content-based sessions, but also social sessions, because that's an equally important part of this.

16:16:32 We don't want to just have it all be lessons learned. So the evening events are mostly about walking, you know, going around campus, going to see the, um, you know, the trivia guy, and that trivia guy is giving away cash, and that trivia guy is giving away cash is using gamification to increase engagement in the events.

16:16:53 So those are a few examples to answer Ruth's question there, and then also shows you a little bit about the differences that we do, both at large scale and small scale as well.

16:17:05 Yeah, that's great. Just on the gamification piece, you know, obviously, there's a lot going into that, and I'm just curious… How are you communicating?

16:17:08 Mm-hmm. Yeah.

16:17:14 The kind of how you're updating people of how that gamification is progressing, right? Because the main thing about gamification is to keep people on the hook, because they can visualize or sense that they're climbing up the leaderboard, or the point scoring, or they're not, or whatever it is. Like, how are you… managing that to keep the excitement and the buying.

16:17:31 Yeah, so in those smaller, more local sessions, that's, um… relatively easy to do, because some of them are… that is the gamification piece is the driver of the session. So there's something on the screen.

16:17:45 There's acknowledgement of that on the screen. Maybe we're bringing up the winner of that thing to the stage and recognizing them, maybe even giving them a chance to introduce themselves. Hi, I'm… you know, Theo, and I'm from, you know, Indianapolis, and I just won the, you know, I'm an engineering major or whatever. So there's some of that that you can do that's also introductory.

16:18:06 Um, and then, to be honest, we haven't done this well every year, but the hope is that after every day of the program, since we are a multi-day program.

16:18:15 We have sessions that everybody is in the same room. Um, at least once during the day. So, um, and I say, uh, same room in air quotes because With 8,000 people plus 700 staff, we have an auditorium on our campus, which is great. It seats 6,000, but that still means we're 2,700 seats

16:18:35 Short. So, we live stream the content that's being presented in the main auditorium to classrooms or other small theaters around campus, so that people are… it's not as engaging, admittedly, but they're watching the session.

16:18:50 In hand, and can also, you know, respond to questions or things like that. So, ideally.

16:18:55 We're sharing updates to the leaderboard in those on the sort of bookend session announcements.

16:19:02 Um, and also sharing and uplifting on social media. We have an active Instagram presence that we're definitely hammering home throughout the week.

16:19:10 And can update the scoreboard that way, too. So… so it's a little word of mouth, it's a little of going to sessions, and then… so you're seeing it and hearing it in multi-modalities as well, which helps.

16:19:20 Yeah, okay, that's great. That's really good to know. Um, I want to come back to… partnerships, collaboration, you know, we sort of touched on that at the beginning. And, you know.

16:19:31 As you mentioned a few were talking about, like, the athletics team, and how important timing is, right? And when you're gonna reach out to these people, you need to understand what's going on in their role and their responsibilities at that time, but I'm also curious around…

16:19:44 Buy-in, right? I mean, the scale of your event is large, and getting buy-in at scale is difficult, right? You have to… align a lot of moving pieces, you have to get people behind a shared vision. So I'm kind of…

16:19:57 Curious on two points of… when you do that, what is your shared vision? What is the vision that you try and get people bought in on? And then, how are you… communicating and really working with those partners that you're bringing in.

16:19:27 Yeah, it's a great question because of how varied it can be. Now, I take a very… individualized approach to this, and so… but if you're doing this on a college campus, or even the corporate center, you have to think about, okay, the mission, the thing that you're going to do. For us, it's

16:20:31 Introduce and connect students to Purdue University in their first days.

16:20:35 Well, we're a highly residential campus, so one of the easiest partners to align on mission with is housing and residence life.

16:20:43 Because their purpose also is to get as many people into campus before the returners come back.

16:20:50 In a highly efficient, highly structured, highly supported way. And so that's a great example of a really long-standing.

16:20:57 Excellent partnership. Um, it's maybe easier for us to navigate back and forth in some ways.

16:21:04 Because we all know the same goal. Move people in, get them settled, so that they can start Maslow's hierarchy, food, water, shelter, right? Like, if they don't know where to eat, and they don't know where they're living, that's gonna be a really…

16:21:18 Two really big barriers to their success at a new location and a new community.

16:21:22 So that's a really easy one to partner on. For others that are on the periphery.

16:21:27 I'll give you an example of an academic partnership we started a few years ago.

16:21:31 There's a center on campus that is called the Fusion Studio for Entertainment and Engineering And we were trying to find ways to just bring more levity, more fun, more unique Purdue things to Boiler Gold Rush.

16:21:46 Um, amid the structure in this particular center is focused on engineering pedagogy and how it relates to themed entertainment. Think of, like, roller coasters. Yeah, a lot of engineering that goes into roller coasters, right? A lot of… A lot of, like, theater when it comes to the storytelling of rides that you go on and that sort of thing. So that's just a very specific example.

16:22:08 But I cold-called them, I reached out to them and said, hey, what you're trying to accomplish on campus is something I think we could align with.

16:22:17 I'd love to just chat about it. And so, for me, that partnership was different than housing and residence life.

16:22:24 Because I didn't understand their mission. I didn't understand what their purpose was.

16:22:29 And so, it was a lot about me just hearing from them first, what are you about? What things do you do throughout the year?

16:22:37 What sort of priorities do you have, either from yourself or from leaders within the units that you operate?

16:22:43 And then, are there ways, then, for me and my, uh, you know, in those moments, I had to make a decision Do those things align? Is this something that would be helpful for me to pursue? Is there some sort of interesting thing that

16:22:57 Wouldn't take us too far outside of the scope of orientation? And the answer has become Yes, where now the two of us collaborate on mini-seed grants that we give to faculty and graduate students.

16:23:10 Who create really fun projects to just put on campus, like you might see at a festival.

16:23:18 Um, or something, and it's… They're doing things that are in their disciplines, whether it's engineering or, um… computer graphics design technology or anything like that, and we're finding ways to then say, I think this project would be really fun to showcase

16:23:35 Or uplift in this particular moment, and now let's get people there. So… So partnerships vary widely, but for me, I have to have a really good understanding of what their mission and vision is.

16:23:48 To see if it even aligns, and then ask myself difficult questions.

16:23:52 Am I looking to pursue this because I just want to pursue it, or does it actually fall in line with the scope of what we're trying to accomplish? And so.

16:23:59 That's going to vary greatly, but that nuanced approach targeted approach, depending on who you're talking to, has worked really well for us.

16:24:07 Yeah, and I guess that's, you know. Relationship building and relationship management is, you know, it's a time-consuming task, and I'm curious as, like, you know.

16:24:17 You are one person, and you're working within a team, but, like, how do you start… when do you start thinking about these relationships and these collaborations and partnerships? You know, what kind of runway are you giving yourself to ensure that you have the time to… build that, and then have a successful impact on your event.

16:24:33 Yeah, so our program happens in August, and so there… there's a phrase we like to say often, it's kind of a legacy phrase, that it's always August. And so, sometimes throughout the year, it does feel like it's always August, because we're reaching out to partners. Um, this is kind of a weird thing to say, but sometimes as early as

16:24:54 The first, you know, car that comes in for move-in. Um, some of the people that are in charge are always already thinking about next year. Like, oh, yep, we missed this traffic signal.

16:25:07 And… or we… we missed this sign, or didn't realize this was going to be the impact, or whatever.

16:25:13 Same thing with sessions. I know 30 seconds sometimes into a session.

16:25:18 Uh, that, like, alright, well, this is the approach for this year, this is not going to be the way it looks next year. And so.

16:25:24 Um, so that planning, then, is… 12 months in advance, just like up here, but then the operations of that The fall for us is usually talking to campus partners to say, how did it go? From your angle.

16:25:39 What were lessons learned? Is this a rinse and repeat for next year? Were there… how was this in comparison to last year if they were with us last year?

16:25:47 Um, and we use that to then… soak in, sort of plan what it could look like in the late fall.

16:25:55 And then, in the spring, then we start making progress, right? Now, everybody, the calendar year changes, and they're like.

16:26:02 Whoa, like, we should probably start thinking about students, because people can start accepting their offer of admission in January and that sort of thing, so… Um, so fall is more for us in lessons learned.

16:26:15 Early spring is when we start reaching out, not only for our Welcome Week program, but for our online modules.

16:26:25 Yeah.

16:26:20 Uh, and things like that. And I see… I'm looking at the chat, so I see Colin's got a question about the lead time for things like moving and housing, and so our timeline with… with housing is… is… frequent. I would say that we're meeting on a monthly cadence throughout the year, um, and then that… our… our structure is large. I think there's 17,000 beds on campus at Purdue, and so…

16:26:50 So for us, that housing is administrative housing, it's the communication units within that, it's the special projects to sort of coordinate the move-in specifically, but it's also residents' life.

16:27:02 Uh, and operations or facilities. So, so representatives from all of those units within housing are on this monthly call.

16:27:11 To talk through things. And so, for… when it comes to on-site stuff, to answer the second part of that, Colin, it… we have our participants move in early, so if the first day of classes are Monday.

16:27:26 Back it up a week. Usually that weekend, like Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday is when the boiler Gold Rush participants are moving in.

16:27:35 And then even further back to the Friday before that is when our Boiler Gold Rush International participants move in as well. So there's a lot of operational… nuances to the mechanisms in place to give students the ability to do those things.

16:27:51 Um, and then, um… As far as taking away from other programs, it's a really great question. So, at Purdue.

16:27:58 We know that there are some programs that happen during that same week that we are. For example, camp for the Purdue All-American Marching Band.

16:28:06 Our Purdue musical organizations and lots of other, um, sort of cohort-based activities are also taking place that week.

16:28:13 What we did a couple of years ago is… is look at the data and said.

16:28:18 Truthfully, the students that are doing Boiler Gold Rush and doing those programs.

16:28:23 Are not being retained at super different percentages. And so, why don't we communicate this to new students as one bucket?

16:28:32 As… as long as you're doing one of these programs. You're more likely to persist to your second semester, and certainly your second year.

16:28:41 So, highly encourage you to attend those things. For us, that does not impede with things like fraternity, sorority life recruitment.

16:28:50 Um, because those happen… the kickoff to that happens actually the day after Boiler Gold Rush.

16:28:55 And then continues in the first few weeks of the semester.

16:28:58 So, the culture on different campuses is so different, and so the priorities of different cohort-based groups is so different, but what my approach has been is to understand what their needs are.

16:29:13 And try to see if we can… start to communicate as a Purdue, as opposed to all of these different units.

16:29:21 Because that's going to come across more disconnected to the student experience, and so that approach has worked for us I hope, Colin, that they answers the question that you have about the early timelines and competing with others as well.

16:29:35 Yes, that's great, and Colin, if you had any other follow-up questions, feel free to pop them in the chat.

16:29:46 Yeah.

16:29:41 Now, Craig, it would be… it would be remiss of me if I didn't bring up a guidebook a little bit, you know, and this feels like a good point. We've got the… The sense of scale and the size of the events that you're…

16:29:53 You're operating, and I'm just… I'm curious, just straight out, like, you know.

16:29:56 How does Guidebook help you coordinate something this complex? Like, how are you utilizing Guidebook?

16:30:02 Alright, so I need to tell the audience, like, this is not, like, Nathan did not approve my answers ahead of time, like, this is a genuine Craig response, genuine Purdue response.

16:30:13 Uh, Guidebook has been tremendous because of the… the user experience.

16:30:19 Um, well, I told you about how we segment the… the large group into five big teams. Um… What that does for us is that some teams have different things to do at different times, and in different locations throughout the week.

16:30:38 What we're able to do through Guidebook is that when students log into the app.

16:30:44 They can select the team that they're on, because they get an email from us, and it says, hey, if you're living in one of these, this is the team you're on. Also, you can download We've rebranded it to Purdue Guide, so the Purdue Guide mobile app, we direct folks to.

16:30:59 And they can click on my example earlier, the McHarrison Hall team.

16:31:04 And that just populates all the McHarrison-specific sessions through the week. And so that… that requires intentional delivery and execution of the grids that we create in Excel to then upload into Guidebook, and so that fits the categories and everything like that.

16:31:21 But then on the back end of the user experience, that time is so far worth it, because It makes the student experience way easier. Way better to follow, right? And we constantly… share to make sure you download Purdue Guide. Those announcements that I shared earlier.

16:31:41 Hey, just as a reminder, if you haven't downloaded Purdue Guide yet, you should probably do that, because the weather is a little tricky this afternoon, and we may be sending a push notification that the outdoor activities are moved inside, and that's going to be your first place of notice.

16:31:53 We also don't print a lot of stuff. For the new students. You know, a lot of orientation programs, including us.

16:32:00 Several years back, we would have packing parties of all of the bags and, you know, put all these things together.

16:32:08 And a ton of them just ended up in the trash or recycling before they made it out of the building.

16:32:14 Uh, that they were checking into, and so it was just the return on investment was just… dwindling year after year after year.

16:32:22 Um, you saw me literally, like. Go, like, my posture changes, I was thinking about that.

16:32:24 Yeah.

16:32:27 And so, by pushing people to Guidebook WeGive with just one small printed schedule that's high-level overview of the whole week.

16:32:35 We call it a sensory guide because we also put indications there to let people know that they will experience either changing lights.

16:32:43 Or that it's going to be a physically demanding activity, or it's going to be something like that. So, some different components of that. So.

16:32:50 The purpose of that is to help students with sensory needs, and that's something we take in great pride in.

16:32:55 But that physical piece is the only printed schedule that they received for Welcome Week.

16:33:02 But on that is a QR code to go right to Purdue Guide to download the app, okay? So there are things like that.

16:33:07 On social media, in email, on the printed schedule. In sessions, QR code on the screen at the scoreboard of the stadium.

16:33:16 In on the screen of the sessions that they are attending. There are ways, and also the printed staff manual that we give for students to facil… our volunteers to facilitate conversations and know where to go throughout the week.

16:33:29 We call it the Purdue Guide Pocketbook, you know, as… to give them the indication that this is just a printed version of Purdue Guide, which is not necessarily the case, but to have the same language.

16:33:42 Even if we didn't have the branded app, we'd probably call it the Guidebook Handbook, or something. You know, we… just to… to make the language consistent, so… We're driving that hard with our students, staff, volunteers.

16:33:55 We were driving it hard there. And a great thing about the guidebook as well is that you have access on a link as well, so… If parents, campus partners, um, or people that don't have mobile devices or things like that want to access the schedule.

16:34:10 But just want to use it on a web browser instead, they can do that, too. And that's been a really helpful tool Um, so that if you've got staff or faculty adverse to downloading the app for just a week.

16:34:22 Then they can go use the link and see the schedule or general context of the program as well.

16:34:27 Um, those are just a few examples of many that we use Guidebook for, and it helps us just tremendously on the user end.

16:34:36 And you mentioned a lot of energy into the different ways, you know, QR codes in the right places at different times, and, you know, to help incentivize people to download the app. And, you know, I think one thing that runs through everyone's mind, either as a Guidebook customer or someone that's considering guidebook, is app adoption, getting people involved, you know, getting people downloading, so I think it's important to talk about, like, do you have a…

16:34:57 A strategy before, right, before people land at the event, like, how do you think about onboarding students at that point to the app. Do you do anything in particular each year that really helps you ensure that people are going to be able to access this information? And, you know, you've put a lot of energy into building that intentional personalization as well, so you really do want people to download it. So what's your…

16:35:21 Overall strategy when it comes to launching the app?

16:35:24 Yeah, and we have a really robust and intentional communication strategy around communicating with new students and their family members, and so… For those that are on the call or will watch after the event, too, we have… if you go to our website, just purdue.edu slash orientation.

16:35:43 On the top ribbon is a label called Orientation Updates. And it's a drop-down, and then if you click on Program Updates.

16:35:53 We archive every message that we… we, orientation programs, sends to new students throughout the new student sort of pre-arrival experience.

16:36:03 And so… they're hearing from us as early as the spring from the… from the voice of orientation programs.

16:36:14 And we hope that it's timely, specific, helpful information. So by the time we send the first couple, which are hey, do your new student task list.

16:36:24 Hey, the orientation, the first orientation module, Purdue 101, is now open. Same with 102.

16:36:29 And they're also getting BGR invites. All of a sudden, this is a trusted name. We're not just giving them stuff for the sake of giving them stuff, we're giving them information that's at a good time in their arrival experience. So when they're then getting information from us, in August.

16:36:48 And we're pointing them to say, do you want to know what's happening during the program that you signed up for?

16:36:54 Download Purdue Guide. Wow, we get a lot of people that download Purdue Guide on the day the email is sent out.

16:37:00 Are a lot of them parents? Probably, yeah. But at least people are downloading it, that now the parent in the car ride or the flight to Purdue can be like, hey, did you download the app? Because I'm literally looking at it right now. What team are you on?

16:37:11 You know, so those things can be drivers there. And so… so we communicate the app download through the communication, but it's helpful to know that that communicating is happening months, weeks prior.

16:37:26 Setting up a foundation of, hopefully, trust and understanding, so that they're more likely to take action on the things we're asking them to.

16:37:33 When it comes to the week before the program, or a couple of days before the program.

16:37:38 So outside of those big office-related messages, then a couple of days before they move in, they get a direct email from their orientation leader.

16:37:46 During our training, we sit down and say, hey, orientation leader, here's the template.

16:37:50 Here's the list of your students. Send it, and request, we call it a callback, just request a response from the student.

16:37:57 Um, and in that is, um, at times, a, you know, push to download the app.

16:38:03 We're pushing it on social media, so we're pushing it there. Hopefully, they followed us.

16:38:07 Uh, during the online orientation module. So again, we're coming at them with multi-modalities.

16:38:12 And then if they haven't, for some reason, downloaded the app with all those things by the time they get to campus.

16:38:17 They move in, and there's a check-in sheet on their bed with a QR code to download Purdue Guide, and then by the time they come over to us in the gym, where we're checking them in.

16:38:26 Then there's also QR code, and the person at the desk is probably saying, hey, did you download Purdue Guide yet? They hear it.

16:38:32 Incessantly. Probably too much. By the time… for the people that did download it August 1st, they're like.

16:38:37 Shut up about Purdue Guide already. Like, we've done it. Like, I've heard it 15 times. But for those that don't.

16:38:43 Or, specifically, I would say, for international students, we see a lot, because they're waiting until they get to the United States to buy a SIM card, to then get on a US cellular plan, to then start getting stuff for that.

16:38:54 That's a population that we know that there's a longer runway for, and we have to be more intentional about that.

16:39:01 But for our domestic students that don't experience those same travel concerns.

16:39:05 Um, uh, or technology concerns, then we've seen a lot of… a good, I would say not a lot of, but, like, a good amount of traffic before the program even begins.

16:39:16 Um, certainly higher, um, and closer to move-in days. So… so we tackle it from a lot of angles and hopefully hit a lot of pockets by doing that.

16:39:25 Yeah, I mean, you've had great success with it, right? Your numbers are impressive in the app. I think I looked at a few of your guides, and some, you know, you're getting over 600,000 sessions, which when you think of 8,000 people attending, like, that's a lot of…

16:39:38 That's a lot of sessions, and I think one was, like, 314 hours total app usage, like, something crazy like that, so… It shows that people are using the tool that you've put the energy in, you know, to create, and there's value in it, but um…

16:39:51 I'm curious, like, there is a lot of data, and there's data that can be utilized. Do you… do you use it to… evolve your event year on year? Are you looking at that metric data from Guidebook and saying, whether it's for the app or for the actual event, like, how are you

16:40:06 Digesting that information, and then kind of turning it into future event strategies.

16:40:10 Yeah, and I will say that those numbers that you provided were helpful for me, and then offline, you know, I've… I've asked either you or your colleagues you know, what do these numbers mean? Like, what is… what is that 600,000 number actually

16:40:28 Mean? What is it like, just out of curiosity, compared to other institutions, higher ed, or even outside, that do that? And it's really just validating to us to see the numbers, understand the numbers, listen from you all what those mean.

16:40:43 But then for us, it's like, okay, now we sort of treat it… we're a very competitive team, and so we sort of treat it as, like, alright, that was 2024.

16:40:52 Game on, 2025. Like, can we… can we get it that high? Or, um, knowing that we'll have a little bit fewer students this year compared to last year. Are we still content if we have, like, 550,000 session?

16:41:07 Engagements versus the 610, or does it go up because we're pushing it, or are we trying to do more things to say, hey, the link for this thing that we're talking about in the session.

16:41:18 Is in guidebooks, so actually go do that right now, and then can we see some more timely specific things on that. So… so we certainly use that data, um.

16:41:28 One, to validate that the students are going through that. We have our own assessment that we do annually and cyclically, that that do ask about their engagement with Purdue Guide, so we get that scope.

16:41:40 But to see the numbers from the app and the owners of the app themselves to tell the story about how many people are using it, it's super validating for us, and a huge reason why Um, again, I come back to the usability of it. You know, we've had

16:41:57 Apps or mobile platforms that it just felt like the user experience wasn't kept in mind.

16:42:03 Um, and that's not something that I ever have a concern with, with Guidebook, because the end product is… is what we need it to be for students.

16:42:13 That's great to hear. And, um… I always like to round off with you know, this question, but I'm just going to sort of mention, if anyone does have any other questions, you know, we're coming to the end, so feel free to pop them in the chat, and we'll take a bit of Q&A at the end. But really, I'm just keen to hear from you, you know, any advice that you might give

16:42:32 Another university that is really starting to think about scaling their events, and definitely through the lens of, you know, not wanting to lose that sense of connection, school spirit, like, the purpose of being at Purdue. Like, what advice would you give to people?

16:42:46 Yeah. Um, I… will start by saying I've talked to a lot of colleagues across the country who have shifted to a model similar to ours, and I think of two standouts.

16:43:01 Specifically, one institution had a 3-year lead time. And the other had one. And I'm gonna guess that the folks that are participants on this webinar have an idea which institution had a less stressful lead-in to the implementation of said program. So if you can…

16:43:25 Get a long lead time. Um, and share the reasons why to your administration, because I understand, like, sometimes things can't have the long lead time because of pressures.

16:43:39 Um, federally, statewide, institution-wide, whatever else, and so I get that on one hand.

16:43:44 The other is, man, 6 months or a year can do wonders to the success, because they bad. At the end of the day, this is a yield and retention program. Like, the… the… if we are not doing a quality program.

16:43:57 Students start to question their experience at Purdue. And so, shorter lead times for something that's institutionally wide-changing Um, has a higher likelihood of being a not-impactful program, um, and potentially work against you from a retention standpoint. So… so time to prepare is probably the number one

16:44:19 Piece of advice. But the second one that I would say is lean… not being afraid to lean into the traditions around campus.

16:44:28 Without sacrificing the mission. Like, for us, at the core, the mission is to introduce and connect.

16:44:33 We're not introducing and connecting during the experience through either staff lens or programming or whatever.

16:44:40 Then we have done a disservice to ourselves and the program.

16:44:43 But we can also look around campus throughout the year and go, what are the important things that people rally around? What are the things that Uh, the colors that they're wearing in their wardrobe.

16:44:56 The stuff that they're putting on their backpacks, the routes that they're using to walk around campus, the ways that they're interacting with social media or whatever.

16:45:07 Those are all things, if the students are doing that the year before.

16:45:10 The habits are probably going to be pretty similar the year after, and so if we're truly an orientation program.

16:45:16 They've got to orient them to those things, too. So, one week with just the first-year students, or new students to campus.

16:45:24 And then they walk in, they're like, wait, what are all these… Everybody's wearing gold, not black? Oh, what? You know, like, I don't want to set them up for… failure either. So, so really not being… or really being attentive

16:45:37 Listening to your students and their experience, and finding ways that you can sprinkle that throughout the program.

16:45:42 I'll give you two examples of that. Number one, we have a tradition where students run around to the fountains on campus.

16:45:48 A few years back, we decided to make our Friday night event a fountain run. So for 5 consecutive hours, all 8,000 people have a 2-minute window where they start And they run around, and then their end location… there's, like, a DJ and inflatables and that sort of thing. So we leaned into the tradition

16:46:07 Of a fountain run, and coordinated it for the entire group of participants.

16:46:13 Right? So, um, that's one example that we did, our flagship, that we're doing. And with Indianapolis, that's a new location, new, uh, place, and that gives us some cool flexibility to start some things, too, and make the tradition an experience unique to Purdue, so…

16:46:30 Those are some things that I would recommend with that, and it does look like we've got some questions.

16:46:35 In the chat, too.

16:46:35 We've got a… we've got to… yeah, we've got a few questions, and I'm going to tie… some… some of them are links. I'm going to tie them together from… Alison, Colin, and Christy, but… Alison asked, um, just around what does recruitment for students, staff, and volunteers look like? And then Colin kind of went a bit further with just, uh, can you break down that number around the 700 you mentioned, and talk about

16:46:57 How you actually… the strategies you sort of have to recruit that amount of staff year over year. And then, Chris.

16:47:02 Yeah. Yeah, for sure.

16:47:03 Christy just mentioned as well, and then training them, so it's quite… quite a lot that goes into it.

16:47:07 Yeah, yeah. You know, we probably could do a second webinar just on the student training pieces, but I'll try to summarize it really quickly. This is a really big point of pride for us, and so… Um, we have a… it's a peer leadership model, uh, where we have, uh, the majority of our student staff are entry-level, we call them team leaders.

16:47:27 Uh, between 600 and 700 of those every year. Um, if they get through that experience and want to continue in advance, they have the ability to apply to be a mid-level, we call them team supervisor. They are mentors for the orientation leader, so they're not actually with new student groups throughout the week.

16:47:47 But they serve as a mentor, and then for us, programmatic-wise, they serve as operations and logistics throughout the event. So they're on sidewalks, they're ushering people into sessions.

16:47:56 Um, they're facilitating activities during trainings, that sort of thing. And then those, about 150, 170 students are then mentored by a group of 9 students that are called the Student Orientation Committee.

16:48:11 The SOC have been team supervisors and team leaders before, so highly structured, um, highly peer-to-peer engaged.

16:48:19 The Student Orientation Committee is hired in September, and with us through September of the following year, so they're with us through a full year, uh, typically juniors in standing.

16:48:30 The team supervisors are hired in the fall, think October, November, take a one-credit leadership development course with us in the spring, and also conduct bi-weekly trainings with us, um, and so we're training those on Tuesday or Wednesday nights in the spring, um, bi-weekly, uh, with that whole group.

16:48:47 Each of those student orientation committee is a mentor, so we break that group of 170 down into teams of 9, and that's where the sort of… gamification and hall team and mentorship identity start to come even early in the experience.

16:49:03 Then the team leaders we hire. Each of them are paired with a team supervisor, so each team supervisor has about 5 team leaders.

16:49:11 Uh, we hire them, recruit in January, interview in February. Decision in March.

16:49:18 And then have a couple of trainings with them in April.

16:49:22 Uh, the goal is to bring all of them together. We have a small, small auditorium of about a thousand that we come together on a Wednesday night.

16:49:31 And spent a couple hours with them. Sometimes it's all in one training facilitated activity from the stage, and then sometimes we break into smaller classrooms around campus to do that peer-to-peer piece as well.

16:49:43 So that's high-level overview, and then they all come back staggered in August, um, to, um, you know, spend a few days with us in advance of the program and get trained for that as well.

16:49:55 Um, recruitment is multifaceted. You have all of those partners, those hundreds of campus partners that we have.

16:50:01 Man, uh, they have students too, so we certainly use the advantage of those partnerships to reach out to students. We reach out to the students who participated in the previous year's program.

16:50:12 Um, and encourage them, have a lot of things happening on social media. We have call-outs that are just information sessions that happen during the spring as well. So it's a multi… wronged approach, but then we have the 9SSOC and the 150 team supervisors that can also be out in the field.

16:50:31 In January, helping recruit the team leaders. So they're tabling at events, they're talking at student organizations, they're making announcements in their classrooms, they're… this, that, and the other thing. And so we spread the word pretty well. We are in the ballpark, uh, you know, I mean, we have… we have a lot of applicants, probably, at our peak, we had about 1,200 or 1,300 applicants for the position.

16:50:54 And so, um, people know about it, people have the experience to hear about it, and hopefully we're doing a big cross-section of campus in our outreach efforts as well.

16:51:04 Yeah, wow. It's, uh, yeah, a lot… a lot goes into that.

16:51:15 Yeah.

16:51:08 And I do just want to tackle Ruth's question around, um… about feedback and how it guides future events, and… you know, how do you gather that from students, if at all, and is it… quantitative, qualitative, what kind of feedback are you looking for?

16:51:24 It's a mix, so we'll do a satisfaction and say, here are all the events on a scale from 1 to 5, how'd you like it?

16:51:29 Um, are you satisfied with it? We also have some longitudinal things, so we assess belonging, um, and so we have specific questions, and those happen on a… it's a three-cycle approach. So.

16:51:44 We just launched Purdue 101, we call it, at the beginning of May. The first part of that module is a survey.

16:51:50 Then, and in that survey, we asked some belonging questions. How… how do you feel about being a Purdue student? Are you ready for the academic rigor? Things like that. In more survey-appropriate and… and words than I just spoke there.

16:52:03 But we survey them there in May. When they go through Purdue 102 in June, and then after Boiler Gold Rush in August, and we can see progression.

16:52:12 You know, did these programs have an impact? Do we think that these programs attributed to belonging? Um, are there any pockets of those students that we think Um, there are gaps for, and all of that data is synthesized and analyzed by some of our great colleagues on campus.

16:52:31 Um, and used to report out as well. So, it's a mix, and then we have some, um, qualitative data that we ask that's just like, hey, shout out your team leader, or what's the biggest thing you took away from the program, or… Um, any advice or things that you would want us to consider next year? And those are helpful for… so it is a mix

16:52:50 Of both, and if you go on our website, um, under About Us and our annual report section.

16:52:57 There's a pretty robust, um, report for our office from last year that might be helpful for you as well.

16:53:04 Amazing. Well, I think we're almost up on time. Um, so firstly, thank you so much for joining us today and sharing and giving all of that insight.

16:53:15 To those who watched and asked questions, we really appreciate that. You know, we look forward to seeing you at another guidebook meets in the future. To those who are watching on demand.

16:53:26 Are they, you know, if they want to reach out, I'm sure they can find you on LinkedIn or anything like that, so if you have a question.

16:53:31 For myself, you know, feel free to email, and we'll get back to you.

16:53:36 Um, but yeah, Craig, thank you so much for joining us. I hope you have a great rest of your day, and thank you to everyone for watching.

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