Every summer, the University of Nebraska–Lincoln transforms.
Residence halls that housed students during the academic year become temporary homes for thousands of campers, athletes, researchers and conference attendees from around the world. Dining centers stay busy, meeting rooms fill with activity and campus shifts into full hospitality mode.
Kristine Olson, assistant director for Conferences Services, said the events are opportunities for the university to be a part of creating memories for youth and foster connections with potential future students.
“Individuals are coming to campus to participate in activities that are really meaningful to them, and so it’s meaningful for us to be a part of that,” Olson said.
Conference Services in the Division of Student Life expects about 13,000 guests this summer. The summer conference season kicks off May 16 and lasts through the first week in August. The department works with coordinators from more than 60 groups to make arrangements for camps and workshops. Most events fall into three categories: athletics, academics and leadership groups.
“I think it’s a really great opportunity to have this formative impact on students and their relationships with the physical spaces college happens in,” Olson said.
Conference attendees use meeting spaces, eat in dining halls and stay in residence halls. Some stay just overnight, while some stay for almost the entire summer. The largest event, bringing more than 2,000 people to campus, is the Christ in Youth MOVE event. Training for new Fellowship of Catholic University Students staff is another major event, along with camps hosted by various Husker Athletics teams.
Most of the visitors for summer conferences — about 80% — are youth, but some college students and adults of all ages also stay on campus for events. The team also runs a hotel-style operation out of University Suites for individuals coming for research projects or other university-related business.
Conference Services partners with facilities and dining hall staff in Housing and Dining and Nebraska Unions to help the spaces run smoothly. This can entail tasks like cleaning and supplying rooms and planning for adjusting dining hall services. On average, rooms will be assigned to unique guests three or four times over the course of less than three months.
“Our facilities team puts a tremendous amount of effort and a lot of careful planning into ensuring the rooms are turned over and ready for new guests to check in,” Olson said. “They do a lot of work to make sure the rooms are in good condition.”
Conference Services also provides training to summer staff in skills like customer service, interacting with youth and managing the front desk.
“We sort of go from being a giant apartment complex to being a giant resort, so we’re a little more hospitality, short-stay oriented,” Olson said. “We want particularly youth, but everyone, to feel welcome, to feel like it’s a place for them and a place they’re safe to do whatever activity they came to campus to participate in.”
Olson hopes youth getting a glimpse into campus life are able to imagine life as a student in the future and that they start getting comfortable on campus.
“The goal is for students to leave feeling like they can see themselves on campus,” Olson said. “There’s a lot of opportunities to provide really good experiences and to start to develop that connection with the physical space and with the people who work here and who live here and want to make this place a great one to be.”
