Will Avanti and CHAOS be changing next year?CHAOS, which stands for Community, Health, Advising, Orientation, and Services, is Guilford’s freshman orientation program. It generally involves three or four days of activities, ranging from dances to hypnotists. Avanti, which in Italian means “forward,” is an optional experience for first-years prior to the start of the school year, with a wide range of programs from rafting to community service.

Rumors on campus have it that major changes are being proposed and discussed. The most drastic of these rumors has Avanti being eliminated entirely and CHAOS being shortened to only one day.

Shelly Crisp, the director of the First Year Center, could provide only limited information regarding these programs. According to Crisp, the First Year Center and Guilford are “in the process of formulating plans regarding the future and changes in both Avanti and CHAOS for next year.”

Crisp said, “During the summer, many budgetary changes were made and essentially the First Year Program was told to slash 15% of its budget and this had a great effect upon CHAOS and Avanti this year.”

Crisp said that “the budget for next year’s CHAOS and Avanti will not be finalized until February or March; thus official changes will not be made until the final budget numbers are known.”

However, Crisp said that her sense was that “the budget for next year’s CHAOS and Avanti will not change from the budget that was changed over the summer; thus the First Year Program is more prepared for these changes.”

Tentatively, the dates for Avanti arrival and regular student arrival are Aug. 12 and Aug. 15, respectively. The first day of classes is Aug. 19. Thus CHAOS will probably fall between Aug. 15 and Aug. 18, which would be a similar time period to that of CHAOS this year and in years past.

Avanti and CHAOS are student-led programs and generally Crisp said that “it is the discretion of the CHAOS team leaders, who do the majority of the planning for these events, to make changes in the program based upon their past experiences.”

One change to the program that will definitely be occurring is that all students who become CHAOS leaders will also be required to become mentors. Crisp feels that, “since CHAOS leaders establish a relationship with first-years, if the leaders are required to become mentors, this relationship will be sustained during the first-years’ first semester of college.”

Other than that, however, concrete changes have not yet been made regarding Avanti and CHAOS. When further and more concrete information becomes available, The Guilfordian will provide it.