NOW THAT THE undergraduate students have left campus for the summer, another group of Norwich students will arrive for their experience on the Hill.

For two weeks in June the campus will be filled with students from the School of Graduate Studies (SGS) as they come to the University for the culmination of their Master’s Degree program.

Kevin Beal, the Alumni and Residency Director for SGS, shoulders the primary responsibility for planning and executing the experience for the two sessions when more than 650 students from 10 programs spend five days on campus.

Mr. Beal, a 2005 graduate of Norwich and a 2008 graduate of the Master of Diplomacy and a Northfield resident, noted that planning begins in July for the following summer. Since students travel from all over the country and the world to Northfield, it is essential for them to know their dates wellahead of time.

Nearly all of the graduate students who arrive on campus for the first time, while fans of the program they have just completed, have never been to Norwich or Vermont before. “They have a certain amount of expectation about what it will be like,” Mr. Beal said. “Our biggest challenge while they are here is to make sure those are filled and they leave with just as much of a positive experience.”

There are complicated logistics of housing, feeding and providing academic space for each week of residency. They involve coordination between SGS and numerous departments of campus—facilities operations, security, academic and administrative departments—and are all executed by a staff of approximately 30 SGS employees.

All of the graduate and certificate programs Norwich has are offered in an online environment through a learning management system called Angel. Those students who are coming to campus for graduation have a classroom devoted simply to Residency. Mr. Beal maintains this classroom providing key information about what to expect in their program during the week, travel tips, as well as area information and attractions. He said that often graduate students bring families and stay in the area on a vacation after graduation.

The first 2010 residency week is June 6-11 and will host the Master’s of Business, Business Continuity, Civil Engineering, Justice Administration, Public Administration and Information Assurance. The second week, June 20-25 will host the Masters of Diplomacy, Military History, Organizational Leadership and Nursing.

For 2010 the top three programs graduating students are Diplomacy with 162, Business with 109 and Military History with 96. Students will be coming from 48 students, with the largest representation from Virginia, as well as 16 different countries. Fourteen students will be here from Canada and other countries represented include Bahrain, China, England, Mexico, Nigeria, Norway and Zimbabwe.

What is most important to Mr. Beal after residency? “To know that we have done all we can to make sure the students have a good time when they are here. Residency is about building community,” he said. “We want the graduate students to be just as enthusiastic about the rest of Norwich as they were about the program they just completed.”

More information about the degrees and certificates offered can be found at www.graduate.norwich.edu.