I went into Colonial Inauguration 5 with pretty high expectations. Being a part of the last group to go, I had heard great things from my new classmates. Even though the fanfare that goes into Colonial Inauguration can be impressive, the program must strive to be centered on students instead of parents, and on providing information instead of putting on a show.

One of the things I was most looking forward to was meeting my CI roommate and getting to know my classmates. Instead, I saw my roommate for all of five minutes. While there were plenty of other freshmen around, meeting new people turned out to be hard because of all the parents that came as well. My parents had asked me if I wanted them to come and I told them no, that I would rather not be the one kid dragging his parents around orientation.

Little did I know everyone else would be arriving with parents in tow. This isn’t elementary school. It’s college.

Don’t get me wrong, parents. I understand that you are spending an insane amount of money to send us to school. But you shouldn’t be by our sides the entire time, holding our hands as we tour the Marvin Center. Of course we want you to be involved with our education, but that’s what Colonials Weekend is for. Steer clear of orientation, a time that should be dedicated to making students excited about returning to campus in the fall.

Aside from the social aspect, the main point of CI is to leave freshmen better informed about all things GW and get them ready for September. Mission accomplished? Not really. The two things I expected to be most informative were the academic adviser meeting and the half-hour information sessions about topics ranging from move-in to drugs and alcohol on campus.

My adviser meeting ended up being in a small group with little one-on-one interaction. For any specific questions, we were told to e-mail her when we got home, which begs the question: What exactly was accomplished at this meeting? For a lot of students I talked to, the only thing learned was that they would not be allowed to take about half of the classes they had registered for online.

As for the short information sessions? I attended two. One, which was supposed to be about financial aid and on-campus jobs, focused solely on the federal work-study program, which would have been fine if there were more than three people in the room that had been granted work-study. The move-in session consisted mainly of housing officials running around the room pulling microwaves out from people’s chairs and telling us we couldn’t bring them.

The best thing about a program like CI is that it is capable of evolving, and CI is already heading in the right direction. As of this year, the $75,000 laser light show has been eliminated, along with horse-and-buggy rides, parent breakfasts and caricaturists. However, we are still a long way from having the informative and productive orientation program that would be most beneficial to the incoming freshman class.

What really needs to happen at CI? More emphasis on information sessions and academic advising and less on extravagant fanfare and parent involvement. Changes proposed by Student and Academic Support Services include having a brief CI during the summer that would focus almost exclusively on social aspects and then having freshmen move in early for the informational side of CI.

I would be even happier if the summer CI was completely moved to the fall before classes start, cutting down on travel costs for everyone and allowing parents to come, help us move-in, learn about where their money is going and then leave us to socialize.

I realize this is all sounding pretty negative. Did I absolutely hate CI? No! I enjoyed meeting a ton of people despite many of them being with their parents, and meeting in small groups atop the Kennedy Center was quite the welcome to the city. So was CI a good time? Sure. Informative? Eh. Are there some things that need to be changed? Definitely.

The writer is a freshman majoring in political communication.