“Next!”

Amanda Berenguel, junior in child, adult and family services, yells out the door to an agitated line of people.

The mass winds past the conference room Berenguel sits in and weaves through the chairs at the counter, around the brick pole at the corner, makes a swift U-turn at the end of a long hall, loops through a series of tables littered with newspapers, back past the conference room and out the door into the 90-degree heat.

Frederiksen Court residents have been waiting to check into their rooms for hours due to a large influx of people at the Frederiksen Court Community Center on Saturday.

“This is a dumb system,” said Judy Kramer of Lake View, who came to help her daughter Rachel move in.

“Whoever’s brain child this was needs a lobotomy,” Kramer said, shifting from one foot to the other.

Dan Fisher, junior in electrical engineering and previous resident in Frederiksen Court, said it took only 15 minutes for him to check in last year. Fisher said he met his Community Adviser (CA) at his building last year to check in. This year, everyone must meet at the Frederiksen Court Community Center to register.

At the time, Fisher was working on his third hour standing in line.

Residence hall program coordinator Mary Beth Golemo hands out check-in forms for people to fill out ahead of time.

“Thank you so much for your patience,” Golemo said, as she flips through her list of names.

Golemo’s answer to the mania is much the same as everyone else working there.

No time to talk, too many residents to check in.

Students peek around the corner of the conference room to see if there is an open seat. The conference room is the final destination of all those who have toiled their last hours scrapping for a chair at the counter or scouting out a space to lean on the wall.

“Somebody sit down!” Berenguel yells out the door.

Next to Berenguel sits Deanna Wagner, senior in art and design, issuing forms and keys to the incoming residents.

“These forms are important; I just don’t have time to explain [them] to you,” Wagner said.

The temperature in the room is soaring. The air conditioner can’t keep up with the dozens of bodies in the cramped room. People fan themselves with check-in papers.

Amy Scheuerell, graduate student in nutrition, said she didn’t expect to spend her afternoon in line.

“I thought maybe it would take a half hour to an hour. Not three hours,” she said.

After the rush

Residence hall program coordinator Mary Beth Golemo said check-in previously fell on a weekday, not a weekend. Golemo said the fact it was the weekend may have attributed to the large number of people.

Golemo said last year, residents checked in with their CAs at their respective buildings during the first two days.

After that, they checked in at the Frederiksen Court Community Center.

This year, Golemo decided to have everyone check in at the center because it was easier to issue keys and access cards.

“The intent was to try and better what we had built,” Golemo said. “We thought it would be easier.”

Golemo said they didn’t expect that many people to show for the first day of check-in.

“We don’t have enough of a history yet to know what to expect,” Golemo said.

Golemo didn’t have the official count of how many people checked in.

“It’s like all 2,000 people checked in today,” Golemo said.