Freshmen Enrichment Program
Freshman Enrichment Program (for short FEP) is a program in BINUS University intended for freshmen. There are several parts of FEP such as General Orientation, Inauguration (Convocation Day), Academic Orientation and Campus Life Orientation. FEP has 6 batches and lasts for a week per batch (General Orientation). The batches ended with “BN” for example ABN, BBN, CBN, etc. There’s more than 15 classes perbatch and one class usually consists up to 60 students. The freshmen are accompanied by several Buddy Coordinators (BC). The Buddy Coordinators are responsible for the freshmen’s class sessions and schedule during the General Orientation. All freshmen must attend this FEP event as it is also a welcoming event for them.
General Orientation
I am a part of DBN01/02 so my General Orientation started on 15 August 2016 and ended on 20 August 2016. The class consists of 45 students all from Global Class, so it’s a combined class of all Global Class’ programs. DBN01/02 has 9 Buddy Coordinators in total.
General Orientation itself has several segments, these segments are:
- Briefing
- Binusian Journey
- Learning, Exam, and Registration
- Bunga Rampai
- Binus Maya
- Binus Way
- Success in University and University’s rules
- Spirituality
- Togetherness
- EXPO
Almost all of the segments are conducted in the classrooms in form of presentations. The ones excluded are Bunga Rampai, Spirituality, Togetherness, and EXPO.
Academic Orientation
The freshmen were divided and assigned to different classes based on their respective program of choice. They were given a class schedule on Binus Maya. Academic Orientation is more like a period for the freshmen to try out how university life is like because they are taught by the lectures themselves as if they already started the official semester. Some lectures refer to this period as “Semester 0”. The purpose of Academic Orientation itself is so the freshmen can adapt and won’t be shocked when they start the real semester. My Academic Orientation started on 5 September 2016 and ended on 16 September 2016 with 7 days of active learning/classes sessions. The schedule for each classes are different even for the same program because the students from same program can be put into different classes because there’s a lot of students for every programs.
Inauguration (Convocation Day)
Inauguration was held on 30 August 2016 at JCC. It had 2 sessions, morning session and afternoon session. Each session has two periods, formal period and informal period. I was placed at afternoon session which consisted of DBN students, JWC students, Binus Bekasi students, and Binus Alam Sutra students. It started on 12pm and ended on 5pm. It was really crowded and we also had several segments. A welcome from the MCs and followed by a speech from the rector. The students weren’t allowed to leave the hall as long as the formal session still takes place. Formal period is basically a formal welcome from the rector and BINUS University for all BINUSIAN2020. We had a session to symbolize it, the embedding of almamater. After the embedding of almamater, the informal period started. The informal session had performances from some of the UKMs and also games session. We were not given lunch by the committee so I suggest the upcoming new students, should eat before the event started.
HTTP
HTTP (HIMTI Togetherness & Top Performance) is a program organized by HIMTI BINUS University intended for BINUSIAN2020 School of Computer Science. The event was held on 10th September 2016 at BPPT II Thamrin Auditorium Hall and the participation fee was Rp 150.000,00. It started on 09.00AM and ended on 06.30PM. We were obligated to bring along our alma mater to this occasion along with our Binusian Flazz card and ticket.
HIMTI facilitated us with several buses for transportation, the buses departed on 06.30AM (Shift 1) and 07.30AM (Shift 2) from BINUS Anggrek. The ones who arrived earlier than the starting time needed to validated their registrations and could walk around to see the IT Showcase and the auditorium itself was screening the movie “Zootopia” so they wouldn’t get bored waiting. At exact 09.00AM the event started with a band called “Peanut Butter” who played a song. Not long after that the MCs of the event showed up, Clarisa Valencia and Sandy Alta Tadete. Next was some welcoming words from Martin Alrando Teng (Head of HTTP), Jonathan Gozali (President of HIMTI Kemanggisan), Rionaldo Aureri Linggautama (President of HIMTI Alam Sutera), and Fredy Purnomo, S.Kom., M.Kom. (Dean of School of Computer Science BINUS University). Then there was the screening of a video made by BINUS University’s Vice Rector Student Affairs and Community Development Drs. Andreas Chang, MBA about “The Key to Success”.
For the entertainment break, an upperclassman, Adam, went up on stage and entertained us with his solo songs. After that was the game session in which the MCs picked out some students to went up the stage as players and they played “Main Mind Mapping”. At 10.50AM, the committee passed out some lunch boxes for the students and had a lunch break.
The event resumed on 12.40PM, a talk show with the interviewees, Nathanael, Reynold, and Christian. Followed by another game on 01.15PM, throwing ping pong balls to paper buckets placed on top of the participants’ heads. On 01.45PM, there was a visualization about HIMTI, some kind of a drama. Then on 03.10PM, there was a second break.
The students got back into the auditorium on 04.30PM, welcomed with a dance by “Revolution”. Followed by “Vibing High” who brought some pop songs. On 05.15PM, there was a symbolist inauguration for the students of School of Computer Science (put on alma mater). Starting from 05.20PM, we had winners announcement for Bantex’s selfie event and HTTP door prize. On 05.40PM, we were entertained by DJ Angello’s performance. The performance ended on 06.20PM when we all went out to get our HTTP t-shirts and headed to the bus. The bus departed on 18.30PM thus officially ended the HTTP event.
Overall for me, this event was pretty boring. The only good part of it was that I’m able to hang out with my friends as we took pictures together and “party” during the DJ time. Plus the long duration of this event successfully made the students got bored and lost interest right in the middle which I say is not very effective. It was pretty fun while it lasted. Not the best but most certainly not the worst.