Chrissy Roth-Francis

A big C has emerged and it’s not the landmark on the Berkeley Hills overlooking campus — it’s a human C, made up of 7,194 incoming first-year and transfer students.

Hundreds of orientation leaders have been hired for the new Golden Bear Orientation, which will replace Cal Student Orientation, or CalSO, for the 2017-18 academic year.

UC Berkeley’s New Student Services is hiring 1,000 orientation leaders for its new Golden Bear Orientation, which will replace Cal Student Orientation, for the 2017-18 academic year.

Each summer, thousands of newly admitted UC Berkeley students flood campus for two-day crash courses on time-honored Cal traditions and to sign up for their first set of classes. Since its inception in 1968, CalSO was intended as a space where baby Bears could learn to navigate the campus and meet some of their peers before officially starting school in the fall.

Cal Student Orientation will no longer serve as the introductory program welcoming students to UC Berkeley, starting in 2017.

UC Berkeley’s student-athletes are now encouraged to attend CalSO after the final buzzer sounded on a separate athlete orientation program.

New changes to incoming student orientations and Welcome Week aim to emphasize more sexual assault awareness programs as well as provide greater programming for students to adjust to life at UC Berkeley.