{"id":42944,"date":"2026-08-21T12:24:44","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T16:24:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/?p=42944"},"modified":"2026-08-21T12:28:52","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T16:28:52","slug":"furman-welcomes-class-of-2030-on-move-in-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/furman-welcomes-class-of-2030-on-move-in-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Furman welcomes Class of 2030 on move-in day"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the Class of 2030 moved into their dorms at Furman University on Aug. 20, their classmates, faculty and staff worked to make sure those first moments could be about connection, not unloading luggage.<\/p>\n

Furman welcomed its largest class in a decade, and most of the more than 700 first-year students<\/a> moved onto campus Thursday. Moms and dads buzzed with the worry of how they would haul a dorm\u2019s worth of belongings upstairs and into their students\u2019 new home for the year.<\/p>\n

And they got to breathe a sigh of relief as Furman\u2019s campus community took the load off their shoulders. The Paladin Battalion ROTC, men\u2019s and women\u2019s athletic teams, dance and cheer squads all came out to help make the Class of 2030\u2019s introduction to campus a less sweaty and stressful affair.<\/p>\n

\"A

Newly moved-in Furman students had family and friends helping them get their dorm rooms set up on Thursday. Photo by Nathan Gray, Furman University.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cFrom the moment we pulled up, everything went so smoothly,\u201d said Steve Jones, father of Stephen Jones \u201930, who moved in from Memphis, Tennessee. Stephen, who was getting his room in Blackwell Hall ready, said he was excited to start meeting people on campus.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted a smaller school for the sense of community, and I knew I wanted to go into engineering,\u201d he said. The dual-degree<\/a> applied physics and engineering degree program was a perfect fit for Stephen. For his mom, Vicky Jones, the attention she saw her son get during tours and orientation was proof enough that he was somewhere he\u2019d be taken care of.<\/p>\n

Olivia Marsh \u201930 was spending time with a friend between bouts of helping get her dorm room settled alongside her parents. From the moment she stepped foot on campus, she was ready to be part of what makes Furman special.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited I\u2019ll get a lot of time meeting face-to-face with my professors after spending so much of high school in online classes,\u201d she said. \u201cI want to join the equestrian team, so I can\u2019t wait to learn more about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Student

Move-in day is about more than getting a student settled in a dorm \u2013 it\u2019s about helping them feel like part of the campus community from Day One. Photo by Nathan Gray, Furman University.<\/p><\/div>\n

Move-in day means more than getting a student into their room. It\u2019s the beginning of their belonging at Furman<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur hope is that students move beyond simply unpacking their belongings and begin forming relationships with their roommates, floormates, RAs, and the people who will become part of their Furman experience,\u201d said Curtis Nash, assistant dean and director of Housing and Residence Life. \u201cOur staff are focused on creating communities where students feel welcomed, seen, and connected, and we are excited to welcome this class.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a feeling Sarah Iqbal \u201928, one of the resident assistants, wanted to pass down to the incoming class.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy RA was incredible when I moved onto campus, she was so helpful when I was moving in on my own,\u201d Iqbal said. \u201cEven if I could give them 10% of the experience my RA Gretchen gave me, that would be amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The university welcomed its largest class in a decade as the campus community rallied to make them feel like a part of the community from their very first moments as Paladins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":401,"featured_media":42931,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,1922,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-admission","category-clearly-furman","category-student-life"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/401"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42944"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42944\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42949,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42944\/revisions\/42949"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}