SAN FRANCISCO, August 22, 2002

WHAT: San Francisco State University freshmen and sophomores will unload and unpack their clothes, computers, stereos, lava lamps, mini-refrigerators, Vin Diesel posters and other personal belongings Friday, Aug. 23, and Sunday, Aug. 25, as they move into the campus residence halls. Classes begin Wednesday, Aug. 28.

All 1,610 beds on campus have been reserved. The University houses 850 freshmen and sophomores in Mary Ward and Mary Park halls and 760 juniors, seniors and graduate students in the Village at Centennial Square. Students have been moving into the Village throughout the month.

The SFSU Foundation Inc. recently bought 180 units adjacent to campus in an area of The Villas Parkmerced apartment community, to be leased to SFSU students, faculty and staff. In the past month, nine apartments have been leased to students, and in the next month about seven more units will become available as tenants who occupied the units before the Foundation purchase move out. (Those tenants still in Parkmerced continue to be protected by San Francisco's rent control laws, and the units are made available to the SFSU community only as they become available).

WHO: About 850 SFSU freshmen and sophomores will move into Mary Ward and Mary Park halls. Many of their parents will also be on hand. The first 200 students, along with as many as 400 family members, will take part in an early orientation program called Welcome Home and move in Friday, Aug. 23.

Welcome Home helps ease the transition to campus residential life for students and their parents with a two-day program that includes workshops on such topics as safety, stress and time management, and financial planning. Students will also have the opportunity to meet new friends through an ice cream social, interactive games, and trips to Fisherman's Wharf and city neighborhoods such as the Castro, Haight and West Portal.

The other 650 freshmen and sophomores move in Sunday, Aug. 25.

WHEN: 9 a.m. - noon, Friday, Aug. 23.
10 a.m. - 4 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 25.

WHERE: Mary Ward Hall, 800 Font Blvd. (at Lake Merced Boulevard), and Mary Park Hall, 802 Font Blvd. (at Lake Merced Boulevard), San Francisco State University, San Francisco.