Norwich University will welcome some 546 first-year students for the Corps of Cadets Rook Orientation and move in day on Sunday, August 17, 2014. First-year students entering into the Norwich University Corps of Cadets, called rooks, will be welcomed by President Schneider and the Norwich University leadership at 1:30 p.m. in Kreitzberg Arena and will then have seven minutes with their families before marching to the Upper Parade Ground to start their physical and leadership training in the Corps of Cadets. Rook Orientation, commonly called Rook Week, is a seven-day period of training prior to the start of classes on the Northfield, Vermont, campus.
Rooks will be issued uniforms and taught to set up their rooms and to march in formation. They must learn and recite important facts about Norwich history and its honor code. Rooks attend training demonstrations staged by the Mountain Cold Weather Rescue Unit, Ranger Platoon and the four campus ROTC programs. Additionally, rooks participate in a number of physically challenging events to further develop endurance, strength and self-confidence.
Rooks meet with academic advisors and are briefed on academic support programs, student activities, athletics and other opportunities available to them as students. After an intense week of training, Rook Orientation culminates with the annual Dog River Run, a one-mile trip down the Dog River, which flows through campus.
Civilian students complete the class
Approximately 214 residential civilian students and 43 commuters will complete the first-year class when they arrive for civilian orientation on Wednesday, August 20.
Civilian students will arrive to a brand new dorm, West Hall, which will provide housing for 286 students. The $26 million dormitory is Phase 2 of a plan to create a civilian housing complex that will eventually house 750 students. South Hall, which opened in 2009 and houses 283 students, began Phase 1.
An 84,200-square-foot dormitory, West Hall – like South Hall – is designed to meet LEED certification guidelines for energy conservation and features lounges, a game room and facilities for exercise and laundry.
The Class of 2018 hails from 11 countries and 43 states. States sending the most students are: Massachusetts, Vermont, New York, Connecticut, New Hampshire, New Jersey, California, Maine, Virginia and Texas. The class includes 24 international students coming from Canada, China, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, Lithuania, Mexico, the Netherlands, Nicaragua and Taiwan.
Twenty-three students will join the Honors Program, and 71 will be bringing a nationally-awarded three or four-year ROTC scholarship.
Norwich University is a diversified academic institution that educates traditional-age students and adults in a Corps of Cadets and as civilians. Norwich offers a broad selection of traditional and distance-learning programs culminating in Baccalaureate and Graduate Degrees. Norwich University was founded in 1819 by Captain Alden Partridge of the U.S. Army and is the oldest private military college in the United States of America. Norwich is one of our nation's six senior military colleges and the birthplace of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC). www.norwich.edu