Exuberant bunches of bouncing blue and white balloons ringed the Homewood campus on Friday as the first of two move-in days brought half of the incoming 990 freshmen to their new home for the next four years.

To speed along the move-in process, the Orientation 2000 volunteers took advantage of a new low-tech transportation system: big cardboard moving boxes equipped with wheels.

Two streams of cars, SUVs and minivans--carrying license plates from as far away as Michigan, Florida, Oklahoma and Texas--idled along the University Parkway entrance to campus, their drivers toting instruction sheets and their backseats carrying students and boxes.

Then at 9:15 a.m. came the relayed call the families had been waiting for: "AMR I is ready--let 'em in."

Just minutes later, Orientation 2000 volunteers had the contents of the first cars unloaded and on their way to the students' rooms.

This year's carefully choreographed move-in was necessitated by the open-space plan construction, which was responsible for one other change: President Brody and his wife, Wendy, greeted students on scooters rather than their customary in-line skates.