It’s move-in day of your freshman year. You’ve unloaded the car, and your new residence hall room is full of boxes. Your family members have given you one last hug before they drive off. Congratulations, you’re finally a college student. And now, Iowa State has one message for you: Good luck figuring it all out on your own.

Apparently, the Editorial Board of the Daily believes this what the transition to college should be, as shown by their Aug. 22 editorial “Destination Iowa State treats new students like children.” If the students on the Editorial Board had it all together from the moment that they first set foot on campus, I’m extremely impressed with their maturity. However, the vast majority of the nearly 5,000 students who participated in Destination Iowa State this year appreciated the support structure that hard-working staff and student leaders put in place to help with this huge change in their lives.

Destination Iowa State is designed to ease that transition. New students are teamed with fellow incoming students from similar residential areas, as well as with one continuing student called a team leader, who is chosen for their leadership skills. It’s a fun and informational three-day event that allows students to learn about campus resources, ask questions of faculty (and of their team leader) and most importantly, settle in and feel more comfortable with this new thing called college before the real work of classes begins.

The Editorial Board’s argument in opposition to Destination Iowa State is in three parts: First, the university has no business coddling new students, who are independent adults; second, Destination Iowa State is a poor substitute for orientation; and third, the program’s expense is not justified by its value.

First, Destination Iowa State is not meant to coddle anyone. Rather, it aims to assist the students who are seeking help with adjusting to college. Providing services to help students is commonplace at Iowa State. The Academic Success Center, Student Counseling Services, Multicultural Student Affairs and a whole host of different university offices exist to help students who seek it in those areas. Destination Iowa State is no different. Students are free to come and go to the different events as they wish. If they choose not to take part, that’s their own prerogative. As the Editorial Board reminds us, they are adults, after all. But just because they’re adults doesn’t mean they know it all. Sometimes, we’d like a little help. That’s why Destination Iowa State is here.

Second, Destination Iowa State is not a substitute to orientation. In fact, orientation is a completely separate event. The large majority of incoming students went through orientation in May and June this past summer. That’s quite a while before Aug. 20, the first day of classes. While orientation is a great way for students and family members to get those pressing questions answered and to lock down a class schedule, holding an event from Aug. 16 to 18 (like Destination Iowa State) is a much better way to help students with the anxiety and nerves that most will feel before actually starting college.

Third, the value of Destination Iowa State far exceeds its costs. The expenses of the event come from the acceptance fee that incoming students pay — not tuition dollars. To be clear, no continuing student at Iowa State was charged for this year’s Destination Iowa State. It may be easy to think that Destination Iowa State is just a time for new students to have fun, but in reality, it’s so much bigger than that. As a Cyclone Aide, I had the opportunity to meet new students at their orientations. With some, we chatted about their worries and concerns for college. Would they fit in? How easily would they make friends? For me to witness Destination Iowa State helping them form life-long friendships and become more comfortable is a powerful experience that’s well worth every cent.

Freshmen have enough to worry about with the difficulty of college classes. Destination Iowa State helps put some of their other concerns aside before even starting on schoolwork. Destination Iowa State is an important program that assists young adults with the biggest transition in their lives, and I’m proud to have worked on it.