Past Traditions: Freshman Camp

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Freshman Week, 1967

Freshman Camp was born in the summer of 1930, when a number of incoming male freshmen were given the opportunity to meet at the Minneapolis YMCA camp at Lake Independence⁽¹⁾. Following a similar orientation tradition by other institutions, this event was hosted by the University’s YMCA and allowed these incoming students to acquaint themselves with the “traditions and personalities of the campus” ⁽¹⁾. Only 125 men were eligible to attend the camp and applications were requested up until the date ⁽¹⁾.

In that same year, female freshmen also participated in orientation festivities outside of the Freshman Camp that was established only for men. Called a “Frosh Frolic,” incoming women were invited to meet once a week to talk “about anything from campus activities to what the ideal coed should wear” ⁽²⁾.

Photograph of Freshman Camp, The Gopher, Volume 69, 1956

By the early 1940s, Freshman Camp redeveloped its method of implementation at the University of Minnesota. A number of incoming high school graduates (both male and female) were chosen based on “scholarship and leadership abilities” to assist in their classmates with “useful information about the University routine” once Freshman Week began in the Fall ⁽³⁾.

“Leadership Camps are now to be a part of every freshman week program in years to come” – The Minnesota Daily: October 1, 1941 ⁽⁴⁾

As attendance continued to grow, so did the number of camps available. By 1951 there were three sites prepared for the freshmen entering the University of Minnesota. These included Camp St. Croix in Hudson, Wisconsin, sponsored by the YMCA and YWCA, Camp Lyman on Lake Minnetonka and Camp Ihduhapi on Lake Independence ⁽⁵⁾. By that point, the Freshman Camp was optional for incoming students and with a limited amount of space, attendance was on a first-come, first-served basis ⁽⁶⁾.

Photograph of Freshman Camp, The Gopher, Volume 76, 1963

The number of camps available for attendance continued to expand throughout the 1950s. And due to the increase in freshman attendance to the University of Minnesota, a required fee was placed upon participation.

By 1963, the addition of a special camp for transfer students was also included in the Welcome Week and Orientation for the incoming school year ⁽⁷⁾. It was conducted by the same faculty and upperclassmen, but allowed students with higher educational levels to attend ⁽⁷⁾.

Photograph of Freshman Camp, The Gopher, Volume 79, 1966

Freshman Camp continued well into the 1970s, where sailing trips, rock-climbing excursions and a trip to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area were additionally offered to the incoming students ⁽⁸⁾. And by the late 1980s, the well-established Orientation event changed its name to the “New Student Weekend” ⁽⁹⁾.

Throughout the 1990s and into the early 2000s, the New Student Weekend proposed similar qualities to Freshman Camp. It was a way for incoming freshman or transfer students to learn more about the University and to connect with others who were in a similar scenario as themselves.

By 2004, it was proposed by the Student Senate Consultative Committee to develop a new Welcome Week, where the University would “build on orientation, present students with more information, build a sense of tradition, help students find their place, and connect with their college and academics” ⁽¹⁰⁾. But in order to do this, the offering of the New Student Weekend would discontinue. This proposal did not come to fruition in 2004, but by the 2007-2008 school year, the weekend long event was no longer a part of the Orientation process.

The memory of Freshman Camp lives on in the history of Orientation and Welcome Week at the University of Minnesota as a weekend of “fun and learning” (11).