There's plenty of room for chaos among nervous students and their parents during move-in, which runs Tuesday through Friday at the University of Michigan.

U-M officials work to stymie the potential for madness and disruption as roughly 7,000 students swing into town. Officials say they view the shuffle as a prime opportunity to make a first impression, with the coordinated move-in and Welcome to Michigan Week programs.

Students will be moving into 15 undergraduate residence halls and a women's co-op, 390 undergraduate apartments and the Northwood Community Apartment's 1,100 graduate and family apartments on North Campus. A small number of students are scheduled to move in Tuesday, with the brunt of the move-in to occur Wednesday to Friday.

Traffic alterations will be in place 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday to Friday. 

"We're trying to make it as smooth and convenient as possible," said Ann Hower, the director of the office of new student programs, which puts together Welcome to Michigan.

The programs, organized in conjunction with student affairs, feature more than 200 events and kick off Thursday with a new student convocation open to freshmen and their parents. The occasion includes a welcome from U-M President Mary Sue Coleman and the Michigan Marching Band.

"With the activities, we mean to say, 'We're so excited you're finally here. And we're ready to kick off the academic year,'" Hower said.

University Housing coordinates the ground logistics. From where to park to what to do with a sea of packing peanuts, it's all been covered. But it wasn't always that way.

Prior to 1990, no plans were in place. Everyone just moved in over Labor Day weekend.

"There was no traffic control, no arrangements for parking. People did whatever they could do. It was chaotic and generally unpleasant. They felt aggrieved by the time they arrived in the building," said Alan Levy, who worked in University Housing for 25 years and now works as a director of communications for IT at U-M.

Irate, exhausted parents lashed out at the sight of a dust bunny, and moving in was viewed as something to get past, he said.

Since then, University Housing has set it sights on cohesion and cooperation with the city of Ann Arbor. What was once part spontaneous dance, part nightmare has become an exercise in precision-planning.

A particularly bad move-in year - fall 1993 - was wrought with a combination of heat, torrential rain and poor planning, highlighting the need for a more methodical move-in process. The next year, the athletic department began scheduling its first home game on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend, and University Housing pushed move-in to weekdays, Levy said.

This year, in addition to traffic arrangements with the city, assigned move-in days for every student and plenty of advanced communication, 820 student volunteers called the Move-In Makers arrived early to help other students move in.

A cardboard, Styrofoam and packing peanut recycling program includes signs and advance notice so students will use it, said Jeff Schroeder, sustainability coordinator for University Housing. On average, the program recycles about 50 tons of cardboard, 600 bags of Styrofoam block and 80 bags of packing peanuts.

Levy said the university once viewed the move-in period as University Housing's problem. Now all the undergraduate departments get involved in the Welcome to Michigan program, and administrators like Coleman and Provost Teresa Sullivan serve ice cream outside the residence halls.

Coleman has been known to joke with students that the ice cream is the only free thing they'll be getting from the university.

The first home football game is 3:30 p.m. Sept. 5 against Western Michigan. Classes start Sept. 8.

Photo 1: David Yang of Ann Arbor carries some clothes and carpet up to his room in South Quad at the University of Michigan Friday afternoon. Yang, a freshman this year, is one of 820 Move-In Makers who will be helping other students move in to their dorms beginning Tuesday. (Lon Horwedel | Ann Arbor.com)

Photo 2: Ksenija Savic of Grand Rapids pushes a cart full of her belongings through the rain as she moves in to South Quad Friday afternoon. (Lon Horwedel | Ann Arbor.com)

Juliana Keeping covers the University of Michigan for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at julianakeeping@annarbor.com or 734-623-2528.