Photo by Mike Lamb Volunteers wearing “Mustang Movers” T-shirts help new students move into the dormitories Thursday morning. The moving-in process involves volunteers meeting students and their parents as they drive up for a check-in process.

MARSHALL — Bonnie Foster of Brookings, South Dakota, was expecting chaos on moving-in day for her daughter, Lynn, at the Southwest Minnesota State University’s dormitories Thursday morning.

Jill Lear, of Brandon, South Dakota, was pleasantly surprised by the help her son, Nate, received from the Mustang movers.

“That’s the way to move,” Lear said, as she scoured the back of her vehicle for more stuff to move inside’s Nate’s dorm room.

“There is so much help available. Look at it. You got all thee guys (volunteers) to move you in. Very organized. We didn’t even look for directions.”

“They seem to have their stuff together,” Bonnie Foster said. “Lots of people, lots of stuff.”

More than 265 students moved into the dormitories on Wednesday, according to Jim Tate, director of communication and marketing at SMSU. He said university officials were expecting another 400 to move in Thursday through Sunday.

According to Jess Bentley, the well-coordinated process of helping incoming freshmen move into the dormitories was fined-tuned last summer because of COVID.

“We are doing a similar process as last year. It worked out well last year. We’re doing a curbside check-in again. Meet them at the car,” Bentley said. “Last year we did it because of COVID. But it worked really well, so we continued on with it this year again.”

The process actually starts with the students being assigned move-in times before Thursday. When the incoming freshmen and parents arrive at their assigned time, there are volunteers ready to help them move belongings from the vehicles to the dorm rooms. The volunteers include athletes, students, professors and community members.

“They have a time slot to move in, so people check in every 15 minutes, instead of having 100 kids show up all at once. They are slowly moving in as the day progresses,” said volunteer Josh Behning. He was driving a Ranger UTV to transport student belongings from the vehicles on the street.

Other volunteers drove golf carts.

“They seem to have their stuff together,” Jill Lear said.