Getting to Know You Colleges Beef Up Orientation to Help Freshmen Settle in, Build Campus Ties

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Even though it sits in the academic shadow of nearby Yale University, plucky Southern Connecticut State University unveiled a second-to-none secret weapon at its new-student orientation this year - a lobster dinner and fireworks.

Both were part of a four-day orientation extravaganza unlike anything this urban school has ever seen. Serious seminars on academic survival, alcohol abuse, and date rape were followed by games, free frisbees, and truckloads of food.

As a sea of 1,200 freshmen and transfer students poured past him into a large tent for a meal, Rich Farricielli played traffic cop, walkie-talkie at the ready. "We want the kids to go home and say, 'You …