Move-In Day at MSU is déjà vu for parents

By GAIL SCHONTZLER Chronicle Staff Writer

To start his college career right at Montana State University, 18-year-old Dan Mills hauled from home in Colorado all the essentials n especially his music CDs and iPod filled with favorite bands like the Offspring and Dropping Daylight.

SEAN SPERRY/CHRONICLE Mechanical engineering assistant professor Stephen Sofie pushes a cart full of boxes for incoming Montana State University student Katrina May on Wednesday. University faculty and staff take part in the annual move-in day by helping incoming students move belongings into their dormitory rooms. His dad, Pat Mills, born during the Eisenhower administration, remembers moving to college with his eight-track tapes and vinyl Steely Dan and Eagles records.

“I’m having feelings of déjà vu,” Pat Mills, a defense contractor and former Navy man, said with a laugh. “Kids are kids.”

Wednesday was MSU’s official Move-In Day, when 1,700 new students arrived. About 300 volunteers from the campus and Bozeman community pitched in to help carry hundreds of boxes, suitcases, snowboards and computers into the dorms.

Today’s students were born around 1990, and seeing what they bring to college underscores both how much things have changed from their parents’ generation, and how much things are the same.

“My laptop is most important,” said Katherine Zajac, 18, who came from Washington state to study equine science. “I don’t think I could function without a computer or Internet access.”

“They can’t live without their cell phones, so they can text-message every 30 seconds,” quipped volunteer Becky Mahurin, MSU’s technology transfer director and a mother of teenagers. “They’re in touch with all their friends constantly.”

When she was a young math student, Mahurin said, she was excited to be one of the first to get a calculator, which cost $150. Now the same thing sells for $4.99.

University President Geoff Gamble, who volunteered at Hannon Hall, recalled that he moved into college carrying only a pillow, a guitar and one box, filled with clothes, notebooks, pencils and a slide rule, “my big purchase to go to school.” The musical favorite of his day was the Kingston Trio.

Provost Dave Dooley said for today’s students, “the most indispensable things they bring are a laptop and cell phone.”

“They organize their social lives a lot differently n FaceBook and MySpace are very, very important.”

Dooley said when he started college in San Diego, the essentials were music n Crosby, Stills and Nash, the Grateful Dead, Beach Boys and Rolling Stones, “and for a lot of my cohorts - surfboards.”

Not so different is Stefan Eccles, 19, from Logan, Utah, who picked MSU because it offered a good engineering program, good scholarship - and mountains. His essentials are his outdoor gear n skis, snowboard and mountain bike.

“I’m here for adventure, I guess,” Eccles said. “I think a lot of young people are more into the adrenaline rush n skiing boarding, kayaking, mountain biking. (Parents) are always telling me to play it safe.”

One thing that hasn’t changed over time is the thrill of starting college. Linnsey Johnson, 18, a Bozeman High graduate who wants to be an athletic trainer, said, “It’s all so new, a new experience. I’m excited.”

Also unchanged is the importance of a student’s social life. Whitney Chamberlin, a junior residence advisor who was helping students move in, said, “We care about friends and fitting in. I think it kind of stays the same.”

John Zajac, a dad and software engineer, knows some things haven’t changed. “What’s important for me is not to have a kegger on the floor every weekend,” he said. That’s one reason he liked MSU for his daughter.

Technology has promoted one huge change for the generation that remembers the slogan “Don’t trust anyone over 30.” Today’s parents and kids seem to be a lot closer, judging by how much they keep in touch.

Bizz Browning, 18, of Idaho Falls, Idaho, said her computer is her essential item n both to type her college papers and to keep in touch with her mom, Jan.

Anita Dolan, a teacher from Billings, said her daughter may call from MSU four times a day on her cell phone.

“I called home very few times because of the cost,” Dolan recalled. The change is a mixed blessing, she said. “Sometimes you learn to do things on your own and feel stronger because of it.”

And in her day, MSU didn’t help students move in.

“I was expecting to be sweaty, my feet would hurt, my arms hurt. The (volunteer) workers have done everything,” Dolan marveled. “This just makes it so much better.”

Gail Schontzler is at gails@dailychronicle.com or 582-2633.

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