Cars slowed to a crawl around campus Aug. 19 and 20 for freshman move-in days while thousands of students and their totes of clothes, DVDs and plastic dishes were clustered in dorm parking lots.

Thomas Siegele, freshman in pre-computer science, moved into Lyon Hall on Aug. 19. So far, the only issue for Siegele is having no air conditioning.

“When I was with my sister when she moved in Illinois State University, it took a couple hours,” Siegele said. “Here it was like three minutes.”

Part of that is due to the Move-In Crew, Siegele said. 

When Move-In Crew started 5 years ago, it had a couple hundred volunteers. Now, it has grown to more than 900 volunteers.

Ryan Komosa, sophomore in aerospace engineering, has been involved with Move-In Crew for two years. Even as a freshman, he thought it was a great opportunity to meet new people.

Komosa hopes to help in future years.

Janessa Thomas, a community adviser in Friley Hall, said that being in a large residence hall offers residents the opportunity to meet all different kinds of people.

“My residents seem to be really happy about move in so far,” Thomas said. “Move-In Crew has been good and everyone has been really satisfied with how quickly they get their things moved in.”

New students moving in to the Union Drive Association have 30 minutes to move into their new homes. With Move-In Crew, they can get moved in with one trip from the car to the student’s dorm.

Laura Michaelson, freshman in mechanical engineering, is excited to learn more about future engineering careers and chose Iowa State because of the engineering program.

But like many new freshmen chomping at the academic bit, Michaelson must go through the basic freshman ritual of organizing her dorm room and meeting friends on her floor.

“The loft was interesting, but other than that everything went very smooth,” Michaelson said, “I’m excited to meet new people.”

Michaelson’s mother said that moving in was very well organized and went very smoothly. She knew where to park and how long they would have before coming to Iowa State.

Peter Englin, director of Department of Residence, said the department expected around 6,000 students to move in between Aug. 19 and 20.

“We’ve seen a lot of growth in students on campus,” Englin said. “Starting in 2005, we had 7,909 students on campus. We’re 4,500 students higher than that — we’re looking at an occupancy of 12,362 students.”

While there’s been a 20 percent increase in enrollment, there’s been a 42 percent growth in occupancy.

“We try to provide a great experience for students,” Englin said.

Englin said this year’s move in went really smoothly despite the warm weather and the rain. there were only cars backed up around Friley Hall.

“The system we have in place and the 900 student volunteers that are helping us with move in makes it fast and easy for families to get their stuff into the rooms, say goodbye and be on their way,” Englin said.

After a quick and easy move in, new students can look forward to cooler fall weather and meeting new people.