More than 200 graduate students will be attending the two-day graduate orientation this week, exceeding the initial goal of 100 at this newly reinstated event.

The orientation is a collaborative effort between the Graduate and Professional Student Senate and the graduate college to present students with resources available to them on campus as well as provide a networking opportunity outside of each student’s respective department.

“This is just a really good opportunity for graduate students to meet other graduate students maybe outside of their area of study a little bit, to ask questions and find out more about how they can get involved and what’s going on at the university,” said Judith Strand, assistant to the dean of the Graduate College.

The orientation begins Thursday with a welcome reception and question and answer sessions with representatives from the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching, Parks Library, Student Services, Health Services, Legal Services, Graduate College and student senate at the ISU Alumni Center.

“Graduate school tends to keep you very busy, and sooner or later, any student will find a need for a particular service, so the sooner they know what services are available and where to go and how to get more information, the better it is for the student,” said Anna Prisacari, president of senate. “I think this will give them an excellent opportunity to get this information.”

The GPSS Annual Fall Social, which will be Friday at Brookside Park, has been grouped with the orientation to further the networking available through the program. This event has been held for several years to welcome graduate students and their families.

The student senate organizes socials twice a year, one in the fall and one in the spring, and last year, approximately 600 people attended, Prisacari said.

The orientation was designed to address the fact that not every department has an orientation for its incoming graduate students.

“If your department doesn’t do anything for new graduate students, and they don’t get involved right away with GPSS, it may take them a while to find out about the resources that are available to them here on campus,” Prisacari said.

Planning for this event, which will include speakers including Jonathan Wickert, provost and senior vice president, and Tom Hill, senior vice president of Student Affairs began in June.

The Graduate College is providing the funding to support the program, which is available to the graduate students for free. The Graduate College previously had orientation events similar to this but eventually ceased having them due to low attendance.

“We did meet our expectations and exceeded them,” Prisacari said, regarding the number of students expected to attend this year. “So I guess this just shows this event was needed for students.”

Registration is still open online, and students are welcome to attend despite having not registered. Events begin 5:30 p.m. Thursday. The fall social begins at the same time Friday.