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Nervous about starting at Michigan State? Worried about your class schedule, living away from home, or where to even start? The Spartan Orientation Station (SOS) is a podcast hosted by New Student Orientation staff and was created by students for students. This podcast will launch twice a week throughout the summer, and each episode will feature a unique interview with campus departments discussing their services, common misconceptions, and fun Spartan engagement opportunities. When you need help at Michigan State, it is okay to signal SOS! Don’t worry – MSU is there for you.
You're listening to the Spartan Orientation Station on Impact eighty nine FM, the podcast by students for students. Now this week's episode.
Andrew P.:Walk around campus and you will hear students say they just finished their I'm game or they just took their CS exam. It's more than just common. With countless departments, positions, and locations, Michigan State University is full of acronyms, from the well known ones like MSU itself to the more obscure ones that may have you scratching your head. We'll dig deep to uncover their origins, contexts, and roles within the MSU community. Today, we are hoping to get you ready by explaining major acronyms and giving us a common language for this podcast series and when you arrive on campus this fall.
Andrew P.:Hi. My name is Andrew Palmer. I'm a student coordinator here at New Student Orientation and a fourth year student at Michigan State University. And I am now going to have my co hosts introduce themselves.
Kirsten D.:Hi everybody. My name is Kirsten. I am a third year at MSU and I am also a student coordinator.
Jonah D.:Hi guys. I'm Jonah. I'm a fourth year at MSU and I am also a student coordinator.
Maddie B.:Hi everyone, my name's Maddie, I am a second year student at MSU and I am also a student coordinator.
Andrew P.:Thank you all. So my first question for you all is gonna be, what's the most commonly used acronyms on campus?
Kirsten D.:One that you'll hear almost every day is D2L, or Desire ToLearn. All of your classes will have a page on there. That's where you'll access most of your homework, your textbooks, anything that your professor sends out to you, your grades. You will hear that almost every single day, because you'll use it almost every single day.
Maddie B.:Also, as a part of your new student orientation experience, you have to complete a D2L module online over the summer, so it's a really good one to just familiarize yourself with right off the bat.
Jonah D.:Another very commonly used one is SIS, which is Student Information System. This is where you're gonna schedule your classes, where you can find your academic records, request transcripts, and a ton of other things related to your academic success.
Kirsten D.:I think the last big one, kind of with the theme we have going on, is your NetID or your PID. Your PID is your MSU student ID number. It will start with either A or one. You'll be asked for that all the time, and your NetID is the beginning of your MSU dot edu email. So if you're asked for your NetID, that is what you will give.
Maddie B.:Also, PID stands for Personal Identification Number.
Andrew P.:Thank you all. Moving on to our next question. What's one MSU Acronym that you didn't know for a long time?
Kirsten D.:I think the big one for me was ULA. I heard people say it all the time and I had no idea what it meant, what they were, who they were. ULA is an undergraduate learning assistant. Those are the undergrad students that work in your classrooms professors grade, to help them just kind of manage the class. That's oftentimes if you're in like a big lecture style class who you will be in contact with about some of the littler things that your professor just doesn't necessarily have time to work with.
Kirsten D.:But that was definitely the biggest one for me. I had no idea.
Maddie B.:So an acronym I definitely didn't know what stood for at first was RCPD. It stands for the Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities. They can help you with either temporary or permanent accommodations that you might need, whether that has to do with residence hall accommodations, academic accommodations. They're located in Bessie Hall on campus, so they have an in person office, and their online website is also really helpful to use to get in contact with people who can get you the resources you need.
Andrew P.:What's one thing you didn't realize was an acronym at all?
Maddie B.:I didn't know RAs was an acronym for anything. I feel like you hear it just around before you're in college. I was like, oh, RA's, like, not really thinking it's said for anything. It stands for a Residence Assistant. They're basically there for anything you might need in your residence hall experience while you're living on campus.
Kirsten D.:Another one for me that I didn't realize was an abbreviation was CATA, which is our bus system. I just thought it was what it was called. It stands for the Capital Area Transit Authority. They're basically just the buses that run throughout campus and off campus that you can use. And also a note, any CATA bus from thirty to thirty nine, that all the buses are numbered, are free for students to use on campus.
Andrew P.:So now let's take a look at NSO specific acronyms. Can we spell out NSO first?
Kirsten D.:So NSO stands for New Student Orientation, which is our office. We are located in McDonnell Hall, if you're ever looking for us. But if you ever hear people talking about NSO, that's us.
Maddie B.:So also an important thing to note is that NSO is housed under TTSS, which stands for Transitions and Transfer Student Success. So that can get a bit confusing because Transitions and Transfer Student Success holds a lot of different things, but just know that if you're calling that office, you're also calling New Student Orientation.
Andrew P.:And then if students have one takeaway from this podcast, one MSU Acronym or abbreviation, what should it be?
Jonah D.:I think a really important one is something called CAPS, which is Counseling and Psychiatric Services. This is a service that MSU offers where you can meet with a counselor or a psychiatrist for free just using your MSU ID.
Maddie B.:Also, want to bring attention to OISS, which is the Office of Students and Scholars. This is especially important while you're going through the New Student Orientation Experience because OISS has their own orientation experience. It's important to know that those are two different offices. NSO and OISS have similar processes that you need to go through over the summer, but are different offices. I think that we're really missing the most important acronym, which is MSU or Michigan State University, which is hopefully where you guys
Kirsten D.:are coming if you're listening to this podcast.
Jonah D.:Yeah. Go
Maddie B.:green. Go Go green. White.
Andrew P.:Well, thank you all for joining us today. This discussion of MSU Acronyms and Abbreviations. We look forward to seeing you in the fall. Goodbye now.
Narrator:Thank you for listening to this episode of the Spartan Orientation Station on Impact eighty nine FM. Let us know what you think by connecting with us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram at MSU underscore NSO.