Joshua Berheim of Pierre said goodbye to his family on move-in day on Aug. 27, one of many incoming freshmen saying hello to SDSU.

“I’m excited to be here and start something new,” Berheim said. “I had heard about all the good programs and it was pretty close to home, so it seemed like the best place for me to be.”

SDSU’s population has steadily increased over the last decade. The South Dakota Board of Regents will release the official number of on-campus residents.

Beginning with Saturday’s move-in day, vehicles swarmed campus carrying mini-fridges, TVs, futons and other residence hall necessities. However, Housing Director Connie Crandall said her staff has move-in day down to a science – keeping chaos to a minimum.

“Every year we are having more and more students join our campus, but with the help of Meet State we really moved things along smoothly, especially on that first day,” Crandall said. “Eighty-one percent of students were in on Saturday. That’s a lot of traffic in one day, but we handled it well.”

Despite the swarm of students, Jackrabbits and parents agreed with Crandall and described move-in day as systematic.

“They have a really good system and everything seems to be well organized,” said Faye Koepke of Sioux Falls while helping her sonJake move into Binnewies Hall on Saturday morning. “Having the students (of Meet State) around is really helping the process too.”

Emily Sumner, a Community Assistant for first-floor Binnewies, said that if things were not at least a little frantic, then something would probably be wrong.

“It (was) a little hectic in the beginning, but with that many people all in one place, all at the same time, it would be weird if things weren’t that way,” Sumner said.

Move-in day is also taxing on SDSU’s online network. ResNet tech Bryan Bower and ResNet official Brandon Palm were setup in Binnewies helping arriving students get their laptops and other gadgets connected to the Internet.

“One of the first things a student wants to do is make sure they have their Internet up and running, so we help with that,” Palm said. “It’s not just computers though. The average student has something like nine devices that need web access so we set up any device to the Internet like iPods, cell phones, everything.”

Crandall also said some changes have been made for where the new Jackrabbit freshmen are housed.

Crandall said Residential Life found that past freshmen who lived on the eastern side of campus tended to have higher GPAs than elsewhere. Therefore it was decided that this year all freshmen would be located there, unless they specifically asked for Hansen Hall.

“On the eastern side they are closer to the Union, library and other resources,” said Crandall. “It also puts them closer to their freshmen peers – g