OXFORD — At Miami University this week, it's not just freshmen who are getting acquainted with college life, it's their parents, too.

        The 219 new students who showed up Wednesday for the first session of Miami's freshman orientation brought with them about 400 parents, said Hoyt Brown, who directs the program.

        Many of those parents booked a room at an Oxford-area motel, but others, for $17 per person, stayed in Morris Hall, a Miami dorm.

        And just how did parents like dorm living?

John and Kathy Klimko, who commuted to college, are glad that daughter Carrie will live in a dorm at Miami. (Craig Ruttle photo) | ZOOM |

        “It's small,” Gwendolyn Larkin of Cincinnati said of her room.

        “I don't know about the common shower; I guess I'll find out about that experience later.”

        Ms. Larkin accompanied her son Michael, a graduate of St. Xavier High School. He stayed overnight at a nearby residence hall reserved for young men.

        Ms. Larkin found the dorm rooms bland but said they probably won't stay that way.

        “Students can make the rooms their own by decorating them. Mike's going to love this because he can be his own sloppy self.”

        One change from their college days surprised Miami alumni Cindy and Vincent Delack, whose son Ryan is an incoming freshman.

        “They don't use bunk beds anymore; apparently it's not allowed,” said Mrs. Delack, a resident of Naperville, Ill.

        The couple cast an approving eye around the campus.

        “It's better than ever, with things like the new activity center,” she said.

        The stay at Morris Hall was a dream fulfilled for John and Kathy Klimko of Hubbard, Ohio. The couple's daughter, Carrie, will experience a college life that is very different from her parents'.

        “We both lived at home and went to Youngstown State,” explained Mr. Klimko. “Live at home, go to class, work part time — that's your life. We wanted Carrie to have more than that. She's earned it.”

        Wednesday evening, while their daughter attended small group sessions and pondered class choices, the Klimkos rested for a few minutes in their dorm room, then walked into Oxford to see where Carrie would buy her books, cash a check, or hang out with friends over pizza or ice cream.

        It was hard not to get choked up, said Mr. Klimko, thinking of the exciting possibilities open to Carrie during the next four years.

        “She's able to do something that maybe we weren't able to do,” he said.
       

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