WSC campus tours can be seen as a disruption to students across campus.
WSC regularly has tours going on around campus. Sometimes this can be a student interested in coming to WSC or it can be a group tour of students that came for a student field trip. A topic among the college currently is the disruption these students cause to the students learning on campus.
Addie Hejl, junior at WSC, has been a tour guide and a director of first impressions for Wayne’s campus. “When I was visiting Wayne during my junior year of high school, I had an amazing tour guide who made me feel much more comfortable with the transition to college. My experience with him made me want to have the opportunity to do the same to others,” Hejl said.
Because of this, Hejl decided to become a tour guide for the campus. Hejl enjoys giving tours to students because she gets to meet new people from all over the country and loves hearing their stories. This is the first impression students get of WSC and getting a full view of the campus might help them decide if this is the place they want to spend the next four years.
“Something I tend to do is say hello to quite a few people when I’m walking around campus giving tours, which can be distracting at times. I think it just shows our prospective students how Wayne truly has that small-town atmosphere that many people enjoy,” Hejl said.
Hejl tries her best to be quiet in parts of the college so she does not disrupt other students, like the library. “When going through the first floor of the library, I’ll try to speak in a quieter demeanor or wait until we’re out of the library so I don’t disrupt people studying,” said Hejl.
Allie Jaixen, senior, said she also had an “amazing experience on tours” when she came to visit.” Because of this, Jaixen wanted to share her experience with others. As a tour guide, Jaixen does not feel that these tours are a disruption to other students. “I feel like our students benefit from seeing perspective students and meeting new people. I have heard some students complain about noise and disruption on campus or they might make comments about new people on campus, but I always answer with everyone has a different experience and then I will tell a story about how campus makes me feel like I am at home,” said Jaixen. Jaixen believes we have an efficient system when it comes to tours on campus. “We don’t interrupt meetings or class times,” Jaixen said. She explains that most students will smile at them during passing.
“I don’t think that, in general, tours are that disruptive to other students. When we give individual tours, those are typically five people maximum, including me, the prospective students, and possibly their parents or other adults,” Hejl said. When we have group tours, those can be a little louder, especially when we have groups who are in junior high or early high school. We don’t have much control over that, but if numbers allow, we could break into smaller groups to keep the volume down in the library, rec center, and other places around campus where students study.”
Some students prefer to tour campuses to get a feel of life there, so not having this option could lower the number of students applying for college at Wayne State.
