Just over 1,040 incoming students arrived on the Eastern Washington University campus for Move-In Day 2026.
The two-day event, on Sept. 17-18, saw more than 100 student, faculty and staff volunteers greeting new students and helping them move into snyamncut, Anderson, Pearce and Streeter residence halls.
“Move-in is my favorite time on campus,” said Melanie Potts, director of housing and residence life. “Everyone pitches in and plays a role.”
Some volunteers directed traffic while others met students and their families in residence hall parking lots, helping unpack everything from mini fridges, over-stuffed boxes and too-full totes. They then loaded these sundry items into carts and ushered students to their rooms.
Gianna Severino, an 18-year-old planning to study criminal justice, appreciated the extra hands helping her move into her new snyamncut room.
“I’m a pretty school-spirited person, especially in high school, so it is awesome to see a whole greeting party and everybody excited to be here,” Severino said. “This is great!”.
Severino, who traveled from her hometown of San Diego with her parents, Nick and Jen Severino, learned about EWU from a family member in Medical Lake.
“It has good athletics, which I really enjoy watching and participating in. The red field is just awesome to talk about,” Severino said, adding a nod to her chosen academic program.
Planning for Move-In Day 2026 began in the spring quarter of last year, said Potts, with her team placing orders for give-away swag, creating informational packets and notifying students of building assignments.
“The collaboration spans departments from grounds to trucking to custodial, alongside student employees who were “hanging endless posters and door decorations,” Potts said.
This year local grocery stores pitched in by loaning shopping carts to make hauling possessions easier.
Omar Khater, residence life coordinator for Streeter Hall, praised the university helpers: “We wouldn’t be able to do it without Greek life and other organizations that volunteer to actually do the manual labor.”
Casey Mowatt, internships and employer relations coordinator for Eastern’s Career Center, joined the EWU staff three years ago and has assisted with Move-In Day every year since.
“It’s great seeing the students and parents all excited,” he said. “I’ve already had an opportunity to talk to a lot of students about internship opportunities and things like that.”
Skyllar Jekel, a 20-year-old student volunteer from Olympia, helped organize fellow members of the Nisshla Club. A senior in communication sciences and disorders, Jekel plans to attend graduate school at Eastern’s speech-language pathology program.
As vice president of the NISSLHA Club, Jekel recruited members to help out for the day.
This is the second year that Jekel has volunteered. “I really just like seeing how excited all the new students are, and I feel like it’s really awesome to kind of ‘gateway them’ through to their dorm, make them feel more comfortable and let their parents know they are going to a good spot and are going to make a lot of friends,” Jekel said.
For Jekel, volunteering was a chance to pay it forward.
“When I moved into Anderson, we had the housing staff there and it was really awesome,” Jekel recalls. “We didn’t have an elevator, so there were lots of thank-yous because I was on the third floor.”
Elvin Salgado-Garcia, 18, who plans to study professional accounting, is the first in his family to attend college. After Eastern representatives visited his high school — A.C. Davis in Yakima — Salgado-Garcia decided moving to Cheney might be a good fit.
Driving into the Streeter Hall parking lot and being greeted by volunteers made him feel welcome. “It’s a good atmosphere here, and I like it,” Salgado-Garcia said. “I’m excited to be here.”
Another new Streeter Hall resident, Arman Jahanshahi, 24, of Vancouver, Washington, is looking forward to starting his Master of Science in Counseling program. His goal is to become a licensed counselor helping clients battling anxiety, depression and addiction.
Jahanshahi said he chose Eastern for its emphasis on hands-on learning: “You can write and learn and do tests all you want, but if you are not actually getting the firsthand person-to-person experience, then, for me, it’s not really worth it.”
The warm welcome and moving support were unexpected and appreciated.
“It was amazing,” Jahanshahi said. “I honestly felt useless because everyone had everything up in my room before I even blinked. I’m just excited to start.”
MOVE-IN DAY PHOTO GALLERY
