The first week of the CGO was a great success. Students moved into the dorm two days before most of their peers, giving us the opportunity get to know each other and begin to build the CGO community. The first night we had our inaugural dinner, a catered event in the Living Learning Center. The evening began with introductions as we all stood in a large circle. Because much of the lead up discussion on the Facebook group concerned the death penalty, due to our upcoming visit with Sister Helen Prejean, it was important that the incoming freshmen be able to compartmentalize their intense new experiences from the gravity of the death penalty issue. Despite this, student were actively engaged in discussions over the following week as the death penalty was in the national headlines.

We were then introduced to a buffet of Middle Eastern food, with the cultural relevance and importance of each explain to us by Shaul. After dinner, we sat to discuss the summer film assignment Lawrence of Arabia. We focused primarily on issues of identity, the propriety of pretending to be someone from a different culture, ideas of who was using who in the movie (was Lawrence a pawn for the British army, or was he a controller?) and loyalty. Even though people were kind of wired from moving in and their first night on campus,they were very engaged in the discussion.

The following day we had a team cake decorating contest, with judging taking place at our second formal event that evening.

We spent the evening eating cake and have a long but informal discussion, circled up on the floor, about why students enrolled in the FIG and what they expect to get out of it. We focused on asking students why they care, what their definitions of ethics are and why ethics are important to them.

We left the students to their own devices the rest of the week (except for our official first meeting when the rest of the FIGs first meet, where we sat out in the sun and talked some more about the coming year). They were able to explore UO, meet more people and get used to being college students.