By having everyone trade their cards to get a complete set, the class would be allowed to mingle, even for just the few seconds it took to ask "Do you have an Al Sacco?"
Although it is tough to judge the overall acceptance by the class, Jachimowicz did note that very few cards are lying around campus, discarded. An upper-class student reported that during orientation, he couldn't walk more than twenty yards without someone asking him if he had his cards with him.
And that might well have been the end of the story, had University Relations not sent out a press release which caught the eye of someone at the Associated Press. Papers across the country began running stories about WPI trading cards as an example of an innovative way to get student's attention. USA Today ran a story last week and WHDH (Channel 7 in Boston) sent out their education reporter to cover the attention that the cards have generated.
A reporter from the Times Higher Education Supplement in the UK called, saying he was writing about college orientations in the United States. Surely this idea was a winner.
Jachimowicz says that he is happy with the attention that this is getting for the school, but that the fun part for him was in seeing the idea come to life. "People who know me know that I deal in creative ideas. There is never a bad idea, just a bad time. . .this was the right idea at the right time."
He also thanks all the people who helped make the trading cards, and orientation in general, go so well, pointing out that Lora Brueck wrote the text for the traditions cards and that the orientation staff is featured on a card of its own. Recognition should also go to Neil Norum, of University Relations, for preparing the press release that got all of this attention.
There are some extra sets, a few of which may be given out, but unfortunately there are not enough to meet the unexpected demand of alumni and students. Other colleges and even a trading card company have called, expressing an interest in creating their own sets.
This attention is a good way for people to learn about the school, as it is in the mass media and not just college related news. It will be interesting to see if the name recognition will be an unexpected boost to applications for next year's class.
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